Resurfaced
by Burning Teal King
Summary: After an accident involving a mysterious metal box, Mokuba starts having strange dreams.  Some brotherly fluff, minor violence, no romance.  Reviews appreciated.
1. Chapter 1

Legal stuff: I obviously don't Yu-gi-oh in any shape, manner, or form. I'm just writing a fanfic. Similarities between this fanfic and other fanfics are purely coincidental. (I haven't read many other fics based on what I'm writing mine about, so it's entirely possible that someone else thought of the ideas I'm using before I did. I apologize in advance if this is the case.)

Disclaimer: This fic has a few references from season "zero" of Yugioh, but it's otherwise based entirely on the official anime we all know. I haven't seen _every_ episode, and the characters probably aren't as in character as I'd like them to be, but eh, I'm just doing this for fun (and a happy ending). It doesn't have to be totally accurate. And on that note, my explanations for certain things will be lacking at times, since I don't have a wealth of knowledge of technical things. I hope you enjoy it regardless of these things.

Also, Nii-sama means something along the lines of honorable or respectable brother, I'm not certain. Mokuba calls Seto that all the time in the Japanese versions.

**Resurfaced**

**Chapter 1**

It had been only a few months since Atem left, never to return. And for the most part, life was back to normal for everyone, the days filling up only with normal activities, casual gaming, and the kind of little adventures daily life tends to throw at people from time to time. Most everyone was glad to have things this way; a quiet life can be a blessing for some. But sometimes yet still, unusual things occur, and lives change to adjust fitting in what was once never there before.

Today, the events would cause the Kaiba brothers to embark on such a thing.

Mokuba, the preteen with a large mop of black hair looking ready to engulf his head was standing side-by-side with his ever-stiff brother, Seto. The boy's hand was submerged deeply in his pocket, fidgeting eagerly with a number of egg-shaped capsules, individually bound in clear plastic wrappings. He had recieved them from a vending machine not far from his school, outside of a generic game shop, just before Seto had called him to come home immediately. Capsule Monster Chess pieces, Capmon, one of his favorite games, and the main reason he'd never been much into the card games his taller sibling had dominated. He fiddled with these, anxious to know if he'd gotten any he hadn't before, as he watched the going-ons of this slate room, filled with a maddening amount of cables, wires, and cords. They all slid out of the walls like chrome snakes, all meeting in the center, attached to a strange, large metal box that had no less than several hundred ports.

The box held a lot of concern, especially to Seto. It was found washed up from the ocean, on a beach where it had been discovered and quickly whisked away by the loyal associates of KaibaCorp. Their reason was simple; the sealed box had the company's logo grafted onto it. Yet, there was no other indication whatsoever that it had ever been created by anything related. No one knew where it came from, why it had been in the ocean, or why it had the logo on it in the first place.

Many precautions were taken with the handling of the box, firstly a fortified steel room where it was carefully peeled open by robotic arms in the event it might've been an explosive device. The next was transferring it to a scanning instrument to determine the nature of the box. The results were intriguing, as it was inconclusive, but based on what information they did receive, the metal box of ports was either an irregularly crafted server, or some piece of a much larger computer. Whichever the case, it most certainly contained data...which is what now brought these brothers to this cable-woven area.

Seto, with arms loosely crossed, was feeling confident that they would be able to find out where the box came from and who built it based on the processing that was about to initiate. And from there, get some legal retribution on whomever was trying to pass off constructing things under his company name. On the other hand, Mokuba wasn't nearly as enthralled by the infobox. While it did pique his interest, simply for there being such mystery surrounding it, the greater mystery was in knowing what kind of monsters were hidden under the numbered plastic capsules shuffling in his jeans' pocket. So much so, there was a quiet crinkling as his nimble fingers were unwrapping one of the pieces out of its confines, with Seto being too focused on the massive screen built into the opposite wall to notice.

The two of them were standing only about a yard away from where the cables started coming out of the walls. It was a short distance to be standing from, but a safe one nonetheless. Whatever information the box held, it would come up on the screen the moment it was translated from binary by the surrounding computer consoles behind the walls from whence the cables came.

"Is everything ready yet?" Seto asked with swelling impatience, breaking the silence of the room aside from a low humming.

"Less than a minute, sir." came the reply from speakers in the ceiling, the crew working at the consoles behind the walls. "Then we'll be ready to purge whatever information is inside that data unit. For your safety, remember to keep clear of the perimeter. We're going to be putting a lot of energy into this."

"We know." he grumbled solidly, feeling that staying away from the cables should have been a given...a fact degrading to be told more than once about.

Mokuba continued to watch on with only a mild interest. His hand was slipping the capsule out of its wrapper, to which he cupped within a fist, and brought out of his pocket. He made a slow step backwards, trying to put himself out of Seto's field of view...he figured that his older brother wouldn't appreciate his inspecting of a figurine at a time like this, but he simply couldn't wait. He glanced down, relaxing his fist a bit to at least get a look at the number on it. His vibrant eyes brightened at the number 5 set over a lavender star on the capsule's surface.

"Level 5 monster.." Mokuba whispered to himself. "A level 5 is the strongest level."

With that thought in mind, he really wanted to see what the monster inside would look like. His fingertips nervously pressed on the item, to open the cap, but it ended up popping out of his hands at an awkward angle...there was a light _tip_ sound as it landed on the floor and rolled away. Mokuba watched with a particular horror that only a young boy could have over a new toy being lost, for it rolled and rolled until it stopped under and past an especially thick cable, the width of a man's arm. He was momentarily stunned at how bad his luck had to be for it to roll as far as the cables, and under one of the biggest ones at that. He quickly looked up to see if Seto had taken any notice..which to his relief, he did not. Seto's piercing blue eyes were still set to drill a hole in the large monitor while he contemplated the fate of the ones responsible for this.

A scene quickly played out in the younger Kaiba brother's mind; his Nii-sama towering over him, asking why he had to bring out that knickknack while there was important research taking place. Mokuba's answer wouldn't be a good one, he knew for sure that simply saying 'I really wanted to' wasn't going to look well for him. His eyes flashed out of the image, looking back over to the fallen capsule. _ I can get it back. _He thought. _I still have time. Seto won't notice._

There was a minor amount of luck he had. The cable was one furthest to the side, thus the trench coat clad brother would likely not notice if someone were to sneak by there, as it was just barely out of his field of vision. Mokuba took quick, but careful steps towards the fallen egg.

"Fifteen seconds." spoke a voice from the speakers. The boy nearly jumped at hearing it, almost ready to throw his hands up as a criminal caught in the act...but now under the realization that he had such little time, it made him shake off the worry and hurry up. He had to get it before they started, or else someone would definitely see it there...that, or the plastic would melt. He didn't like either idea.

He dove right down to the floor once he got close enough to the large cable, on his hands and knees, and started reaching for the egg. His youthful arm, small in comparison, couldn't reach the length the capsule had gone. The warmth of the cables and being so close made his skin tingle, his heart thump, and a light sweat emerge under his dark bangs.

"Countdown. Five."

Mokuba pressed himself down on the welcomingly cold floor until his shirt and jacket were sandwiched between himself and the metal below.

"Four."

He stretched his arm out as far as it could go, wide eyed, scooting himself forward just slighty.

"Three."

His fingertips touched and crawled on the plastic egg, rolling it into his palm.

"Two."

His fist gripped tightly, capsule in hand. He immediately scooted backwards on his elbows.

"One."

There was a sudden buzzing in the air, and Mokuba fell into a prompt panic. It was a spilt-second realization that it probably wasn't such a great idea to be so close to these cables, even if it meant getting into trouble later. He withdrew his arm in a whipping motion, desperate to get away. This motion, though fast, was clumsy in his terror, and the back of his hand brushed against the underside of the massive cable.

Mokuba was only aware of a stiffness and horrible pain stabbing through his body, everything else seemed to fall into obscurity, he couldn't see anything. He plunged into unconsciousness before he had time to scream, before the pain had time to fade.

Seto raised an arm to shield his eyes as a momentary brightness filled the room. The screen above filled only with corrupted gibberish.

"Something's wrong." someone said out of the speakers.

"I can see that.." an annoyed Kaiba stated. He turned his head back, noticing that his younger sibling had been especially quiet. "Mokuba, are you..?"

His brother wasn't standing there. He whipped around, looking for where he could have gone at a time like this. He briefly glanced at the fallen form near the large cables before doing a double-take, and his eyes looked ready to burst out of his face as he became understandably shocked and terrified.

"M--Mokuba!!"


	2. Chapter 2

**Resurfaced**

**Chapter 2**

The first feelings of consciousness made Mokuba aware that he was laying down on probably a bed. He wasn't too sure. The next feeling was a warmth on his right hand, of someone else holding it firmly. And the last was a pain in his left hand, which made him visibly wince now that he could feel it. The boy's eyes groggily wrestled themselves open.

"Mokuba?" someone called.

"..uh.." came his response. He couldn't tell who was talking to him, nor could he see. His vision was so blurry, he could see objects and things around, but he couldn't identify any of them. Someone appeared to be standing over him.

"Mokuba, can you hear me?" the person spoke again. He felt the grip on his hand tighten slightly.

"..S..Seto?" he tested, unsure if it was indeed his brother or not...the voice didn't sound quite right, but something about it made him think that it had to be his Nii-sama.

"..Yes, it's me. Can you tell me your name?"

"Kaiba..Mokuba.." though the question boggled him, since Seto had just said his name, he answered it anyway. As well, he was confused as to what prompted the question. "W..why are you asking me that, Seto?"

"..Nevermind that. How do you feel?"

"..My hand hurts.." he answered, not feeling it entirely necessary to mention his impaired vision. The more he kept his eyes open and looked around, the more things were gradually coming back into focus. He could now recognize the figure as his big brother, seeing the brown hair, blue eyes, and signature trenchcoat he felt the need to wear all the time for whatever reason.

"What's the last thing you remember?" Seto asked.

Mokuba's mind reeled at the question, attempting to retrace the steps that lead up to his being here. His eyes shut as he turned the memories of recent events over in his head.

"..That box..with our logo..and the ports..we were going to find out..what was inside it.."

"Don't strain yourself.." the elder brother interrupted. "You don't have to answer if you're tired."

"..I'm really tired.." he realized he couldn't remember anything past his taking the monster capsule out of his pocket. Everything after that was a faded blurr.

"Then don't worry about it, Mokuba.."

That's when an arm wrapped around his shoulders...Seto's arm. He leaned in closer to give a light hug, and it was from here that Mokuba opened his eyes again, realizing why Seto didn't sound like himself. There were tears in his eyes, and dried ones on his cheeks. He was silently crying, and that fact gave the younger brother some alarm.

"Seto...I'm sorry." he quickly said. Even though he couldn't remember what caused him to be here, he felt terrible that it was making his generally emotionless brother cry. But Seto simply shook his head.

"Everything's going to be okay, Mokuba. You're recovering just fine. If you want to go back to sleep, go ahead."

"Seto..what happened?"

The older brother lifted himself back up, pausing a moment before answering. "..I'm not sure, but you got shocked from your hand. That's why it hurts..its been burned, but it's nothing serious. It should be fine in a few weeks. It's not nearly as bad as it could've been."

Mokuba's expression shifted sadly. He had the notion that whatever it was that happened, it was probably his own fault. But by now, he was feeling especially tired. "I'm really sorry.."

Once again, Seto shook his head, recognizing his brother's drowsiness. "We'll discuss it when you're feeling better. Go ahead and go to sleep."

"Okay.." Mokuba felt a little better at that, and shut his eyes. He quickly fell into dreamless slumber.

Seto leaned back in his chair next to Mokuba's bed, still keeping his hand on his brother's. They were in his room, and surrounding the bed, there was all the medical equipment keeping monitor over the young boy's vitals and life signs, an IV hooked up, and other medical gizmos at hand. The elder brother didn't want Mokuba to have to stay in a hospital the whole time since what happened, so he made arrangements for everything the ailing brother needed to be setup in his own room, and got him transfered into it as soon as it was ready.

Seto's eyes closed as he remembered what occurred the day before today. Mokuba had been unconscious for nearly two days after he'd been shocked. When Mokuba's eyes had finally opened with an empty, unnerving stare, Kaiba had been shaken by the things his seemingly delirious little brother had said.

_"F..father.."_

_"Mokuba? Are you okay?"_

_"Father..where's my father?"_

_"Mokuba..it's me, Seto."_

_"Wh..what? Who are you? Bring my father here..I want to see him..bring him to me!"_

_"Mokuba? Don't you recognize me..? Our father is gone. He's been gone for a long time.."_

_"No..no..he's there. I don't want to be here anymore..tell him I want to go home..I don't like this place..father...please..."_

After that brief conversation, Mokuba conked back out. It drove Seto into a greater worry that he might have received brain damage, or some manner of memory loss. He since hadn't left his brother's side.

It was a restless night and day...but now that Mokuba seemed to be himself again, Seto shut his eyes, and in his relief, feel asleep in the chair.


	3. Chapter 3

**Resurfaced**

**Chapter 3**

Mokuba was sitting on his legs, hands on his knees, looking ahead at a small, gray person floating infront of himself. It looked like a featureless and faceless action figure, having arms, but no hands..legs, but no feet..a head, but no neck.

"Kaiba." it spoke to him. "Let's play a game."

A chess board was suddenly between them, pieces all lined up in place. The boy blinked.

"Chess? Why do you want to play chess with me?" he asked, with an obviously confused expression on his face. He hadn't played regular chess since being in the orphanage.

"I'm just waiting. I wanted to pass the time. I used to play chess with my father when he wasn't busy. I was hoping you would play a game with me."

"What are you waiting for?"

The figure somehow seemed solemn as it answered, "I'm waiting to remember. I've forgotten a lot of things."

"Really? How long will it take you to remember again?"

"I don't know. But I know I'll remember. Its been coming back to me gradually."

"Uh.." Mokuba blinked again, "Who are you?"

"I'm..."

**SLAM!**

Mokuba's eyes snapped open at the sound of a door shutting with much force. He looked around the room, his vision cleared. It was now that he realized that this is his room, with medical equipment around. Seto walked in just then with a paper bag in one hand, and his eyes lit up at seeing his big brother.

"Seto!" he exclaimed.

The elder Kaiba brother gave a slight smile out of the corner of his mouth. "You're looking a lot better today. How are you feeling?"

"I feel a lot better. My hand still hurts, though."

"That's normal. Are you tired?"

"No, I'm awake." he shook his head as he answered.

"That's good." Seto sat himself down on the chair next to Mokuba's bed. "I got some prescription medicine for you. You'll have to take it until the bottle is finished once you're unhooked from the IV. You'll probably only need to stay on it for another day or two."

"Oh..I'll have to stay in this bed the whole time?"

"Yes, but I'll be here for you. I also brought you something." he said as his hand dove into the paperbag, fishing out a few plastic-wrapped Capmons. One of them were unwrapped already, with the number 5 set over a lavender star. Seto set the pieces down in his brother's lap.

"Capmon? Where did you get them?" Mokuba asked as he carefully sat himself up.

"These were already yours. They were in your pocket..one was in your hand."

The memory rushed to Mokuba as suddenly as a knife in the back. For an instant, he was reliving the moment, being under that cable and scared for his life. "Aa—ah.."

Seto's interrupted by pressing his hand on the younger brother's shoulder. He immediately calmed down, giving a sigh in some relief. The memory felt much too real.

"Mokuba, I'm going to tell you what you probably don't want to hear. The only explanation I can come up with as to what happened, since these were in your pocket, and one in your hand where we found you..."

Mokuba lowered his head sadly, feeling ashamed, "..I'm so sorry, Seto..I shouldn't have brought them with me. I should have waited until later."

Seto continued on, "..Is that I should have kept a better eye on you."

The preteen blinked, surprised by what his brother just said.

"If I had been watching you instead of being absorbed on the results, I could have stopped you from getting harmed. I apologize for not doing better on my part."

"Seto.." he shook his head a little. "Don't you blame me at all for what happened? I was the one acting stupid.."

The elder brother simply shut his eyes, keeping his hand in place, "When there's a parent with a child, it's the duty of the parent to make sure the child is protected, and teach them how to protect themselves. Since our parents died, its been my responsibility to take care of you, as both a brother and parent. What happened is just as much my fault as yours."

These words moved Mokuba quite a bit..his eyes getting misty with tears. "Please, don't blame yourself.."

Seto simply gave him a calm smile as his eyes reopened, looking a little misty himself. "It's what I do when anything happens to you. In this case, there will be no punishment. What happened to you is life's way of punishing those who are not careful. It's my punishment as well..to know that you could have been seriously injured. We've both been disciplined already. There's no need to say you're sorry."

"Seto.." the tears began to run thick down Mokuba's cheeks. He leaned in closer with reaching arms, and in response, his brother stood from his chair to wrap his arms around. The two hugged each other tightly, with Seto being more careful than his younger sibling.

Outside, the sun was slowly setting.

* * *

The evening was whittled away on an eager Mokuba opening his monster capsules, and Seto playing Capmon with him on one of the game boards he had laying around. Out of three games, the younger sibling won two. It was possibly the only game he was better than his older brother at. And after those few rounds had been played, the doctor came in to give Mokuba a general check-up, to see to it that everything was healing as it should without compilations. He informed them that in the morning, they would take the IV out, and he could start getting out of bed and doing things as normal, as long as he took it easy and avoided using his left hand as much as possible.

"Yes, doctor." he responded respectfully.

After all that had been said and done, the doctor left the two brothers alone once more. Mokuba blinked blankly in thought for a moment. Seto sat back down in the chair as he noticed his brother's expression.

"Something on your mind?"

The younger Kaiba whipped his head towards Seto, as though mildly surprised. "Oh..sort of. I was just wondering about that weird box..did you ever find out what that was about?"

"..Well. The information held on that box was all completely ruined." he answered, leaning back in the chair. "I kept in touch with the people I had working on it...they were trying to figure out what corrupted the data on that box. The only thing we got back from it was garbled code. We're not sure if the info was always that way, or if something caused it to happen."

Mokuba's eyes widened a little at that. "Do you think it was from being underwater? Or maybe sand from the beach?"

"No, the casing was sealed tight. Nothing got into it from outside. If anything did happen, it had to have happened after we opened it, unless it was already that way when whoever sealed it up." Seto's blue gaze lowered in disappointment. "I don't think we'll be able to find out where it came from, nor who created it."

"Oh.." Mokuba sounded a bit disappointed along with his brother. "..Do you think that what happened during the purge had anything to do with it?"

"I doubt it." he plainly put, slouching over to rest his forearms on his legs. "It's impossible for you to have interfered like that. If you were a computer, then maybe..but as you are, there's nothing that you could have done to the data just from getting shocked by a cable."

"Ah..okay. That's good." he said, feeling better about it now.

Seto nodded, "It's nothing for you to worry about, Mokuba. You had nothing to do with the failure. We might be able to look for more clues my sending a team out to the beach, but..for now, there's nothing more we can gain from the box. We'll have to focus on you getting better, and I need to get back on track with my work, as well."

"Did you miss out on work because of me?"

"It's nothing I can't make up for. Making sure you're safe and healthy takes priority over everything else."

Hearing that made Mokuba give an encouraged smile. "I'll get better very soon, and I won't let anything else happen to me like this. I promise."

Seto returned the smile with a smirk of his own. He stood up and brushed a hand on top of the younger sibling's pronged hair. "This is nothing you can't handle, you have more than enough courage. You'll still need your rest, though. Try to get some sleep now."

"Okay. Thanks for hanging out with me." he nodded with determination.

"No problem." Seto removed his hand. "I'll see if I can get started on some of my work. I'll come back in the morning, but if you need anything at any time, then let me know. I put your cellphone in the bag, too."

"Alright. Goodnight, Seto!"

"Goodnight, Mokuba."

And with that, his Nii-sama left the room, closing the door behind himself. Mokuba gently flopped backwards onto his pillow, pulled the sheets up to his chin, and shut his eyes.

Crickets were chirping outside.


	4. Chapter 4

**Resurfaced**

**Chapter 4**

Mokuba was sitting on his legs, with his hands in the sand. He was pushing the sand up into sloppy shapes, building a crude sandcastle. Seto wasn't there, but he didn't seem to notice...he was only aware of being alone, and wishing someone would be there to play with. In the distance, a sound of waves crashing on the beach could be heard, ever falling back and rushing forward, dampening the sand where it frothed.

He stared sadly at the castle for a few moments.

Just then, a figure burst out of it, throwing sand all about. The same figure that had wanted to play chess, only now, it looked much different..much more human. Mokuba jumped backwards in surprise as this person now stood over his ruined sandcastle. It became taller than he by about half a foot, with hands and fingers, feet and toes, a neck, and short hair on its head. It was still faceless, and naked, but anatomically incorrect. There was no indication of a gender on its body.

"Mokuba." it said.

"Wh..who are you?" he nervously asked..it was much more intimidating than it had been when it was small.

"..I stepped on your sandcastle. I'm sorry about that."

"Uh..oh." he looked down to notice that his castle had indeed been ruined.

The gray figure knelt down, starting to move the sand around, "I'll help you rebuild it."

"Um..okay." Mokuba didn't really know what to make of the situation, so all he did was walk forward on his knees until he was sitting back where he'd been. He went ahead and contributed to the gray one's efforts.

After a short time, the sand resembled a castle again. The gray person pulled a tiny flag out of thin air, and lightly stabbed it into the top of the castle.

"How's this?" it asked.

"It's much better now." the boy said with a nod. Though he was feeling more comfortable with this humanoid, he couldn't shake the weariness.

"Mokuba." it said, sounding more serious now.

"Uh?" he blinked, as if startled by the change it its voice.

"I've remembered more. The more I remember, the closer I'll be back to who I am. And I've remembered being very lonely and isolated from the rest of the world. My father did it that way so I could continue to exist after what happened to me.."

_This sounds familiar.._ Mokuba thought.

"You get to live like a normal person. I would like to do the same soon. You're now the one keeping me safe.." the person seemed to stare. "At the time being, that can only come at your expense..so I wanted to ask permission first. Do you suppose that sometime.."

The figure paused before continuing. Mokuba blinked yet again.

"..That sometime, I could come out and enjoy the world like you do?"

"Um..I'm not sure I understand what you're saying."

"..I want to live."

"Of course you do." someone else suddenly said.

Mokuba woke up immediately. He noticed the doctor had returned, standing next to his bed.

"Huh?"

"You said you wanted to live." the doctor said, clearly amused. "You either heard me come in, or you were talking in your sleep."

"Talking in my sleep..? Did I really say that?"

The man nodded, "It was more of a whisper, but I heard you. Allow me to assure you, you're in no danger of dying." The doctor assumed his patient must have had a bad dream about his injury.

Sitting up in his bed, Mokuba was feeling somewhat dazed. "Just a dream.."

"That's right. There's nothing for you to be concerned about. And since you're awake now, I'll take that needle out of your arm and patch it up. You'll be free to go as soon as I'm done, but remember to take it easy for a few days. Rest as much as you want."

"Y..yes. Thank you."

The doctor proceeded to remove the IV, seal the wound, and help Mokuba out of the bed. He had the young Kaiba walk around to make sure he was balanced, and then check to see that his damaged hand was bandaged properly. After he gave it all the OK, the man exited the room, leaving Mokuba to do as he would. And the first thing he did was get dressed in his regular clothes, then rush out of his room on sock-padded feet to find his big brother.

* * *

In one of the many rooms of his estate, Seto was working away in his main office. A large, impressive polished desk lorded over everything else in the room, which had his laptop upon it that his fingers were busily tapping away at. It wasn't long before a small fist was knocking on the door. 

"Come in." said Seto. He already knew who it had to be.

And just like that, the door opened up, and there Mokuba stood, quite happy to see his brother. "Hey, Seto!"

"Hey. Finally out of bed?" he looked up briefly with a smile to see his brother, before looking back down at his screen.

"Mmhm!" he approached the front of the desk with a leisurely pace. "I wanted to see what you were doing."

"Just work. I'm not doing anything interesting."

"Are you busy?"

"Yes, but it's nothing I can't set aside if there's a problem. Unfortunately, I can't play games with you right now if that's what you wanted. I need to get this finished by tonight."

Mokuba put his elbows on the desk, leaning himself against them with crossed arms. "I just wanted to ask a question."

"I'm listening." he said, with his eyes still focused on his endeavors.

The younger brother's toes rocked from side to side against the floor as he leaned his weight on the opposite leg, taking a moment to consider how to put what he wanted to ask.

"..Do you think what happened to me would give me bad dreams?"

"That sounds normal. Did you have bad dreams?"

"Well..not really bad dreams, but weird ones."

"I'm no expert on this subject, but having an experience like that makes me think you'd probably have some bad dreams about it. I wouldn't worry about it, Mokuba."

He nodded to that, "Okay. Thanks, Seto." And with that, he pulled himself off the desk and started heading out of the room.

"By the way."

"Huh?" Mokuba looked back.

"I picked up some homework from your school for the days you missed. I'd hate to put pressure on you this soon, but you should probably take plenty of time out to do it. You don't want to go back to school with missing work."

"Oh, okay. No problem!" he nodded again, jogging out of the office and into his room, intent to do just that.

But with all the medical equipment still in his room, Mokuba decided to take his homework elsewhere. He wanted to get it all done as soon as possible so it would out of the way, as he had a lot piled up for the days he'd missed. He went into one of the study rooms with his papers, pencil, and books. Once there, he let everything drop into a pile on the floor, and proceeded to flop down himself. Laying down on his chest with his head up and feet in the air, the preteen got to work right away, opening up his textbook with a sheet of paper ready, feeling glad that it was his left hand instead of his right one that had been hurt.

He spent the next few hours doing his assignments. They weren't difficult, but they were tedious. Mokuba got up every half-hour or so to take a break by either walking around the estate, or going back to his room and playing with his games. After each little break, he went back into the study and resumed working on the floor. However, as time crawled along, he found himself getting bored more quickly, and thus getting sleepy. A nap started sounding like a better idea before long.

"The sooner I get this done, the better.." he kept saying to himself. But eventually, his head was drooping lazily, almost landing his face into his book as he was nodding off.

_Mokuba._ A voice seemed to say. _I'll finish your homework for you, if you let me. You can sleep, and I'll do it. Doesn't that sound like a good idea?_

"Sounds like a great idea.." said the sleepy-head. His eyes shut, and he was suddenly sleeping dreamlessly.

* * *

When Mokuba woke up, he was sitting upright in a chair in his room. He looked around, puzzled and blinking, since he knew he fell asleep in the study. Immediately thereafter, he gripped his stomach in pain. He felt bloated like he'd eaten far past his fill, even though he knew he hadn't had anything to eat yet. 

"Uhg..!"

"Are you alright in there, Mokuba?" Seto's voice suddenly spoke through the shut door.

"Seto..?" he cringed a little as he looked back. "How long have you been there?"

"Since you closed the door."

Mokuba was feeling utterly confused by this point, and his expression showed it.

"You know.." started Seto, "..just because you're supposed to be taking things easy doesn't mean you can pig out like you did. You're only going to make yourself sick if you eat like that."

"..I already feel sick.."

"Try laying down for a while, then. Give yourself some time to digest it all."

Mokuba groaned. He looked over at the digital clock on his desk..and realized that about five hours had passed. The sun was probably setting by now. He looked again towards the door.

"Seto?.."

"Yes?"

"..Can we pretend for a moment that I have no idea what happened in the last five hours?"

"..What?"

"Um..humor me. What have I been doing in the last five hours?"

"..You were doing your homework. And then we had dinner together. You ate more than I've ever seen you eat, and you kept talking about how delicious it was. Why are you asking this?"

"Um..I was just seeing what you thought of it. I wanted to hear your point of view. I guess I got carried away, huh?" he spoke nervously.

"Putting it lightly, yes."

"Alright..I'm gonna lay down for a while, then."

"Okay. You can call me on your cellphone if you need anything. I'll have all that medical equipment removed from your room tomorrow."

"Okay, Seto.. Thanks."

"Sure thing."

And with that, Mokuba heard Seto's footsteps walk away. He turned to look at his desk again..noticing the pile of homework he had earlier was also here now. His fingers flipped through the pages, and his eyes widened.

"It's all..finished.." he said aloud to himself. Then he remembered the voice he heard just before he took that nap. The young Kaiba became lost in thought as he recalled what it had said to him, about doing his schoolwork for him.

"That voice..was it real? Did it do this for me..?" he asked no one as his elbows landed on the desk, and he gripped the sides of his head in wide-eyed bewilderment.

It took a while for Mokuba to get his bearings back, but once he did, he went to work to make sure he had the answers correct. If it was indeed someone else that did his homework for him, then it was dishonest for not having been his own efforts. He spent the rest of the evening going over each answer.

By the time he finished, it was his bedtime. He went into his bed, rather nervous about sleeping, with a hope that what happened earlier wouldn't happen again. _Maybe I'll wake up, and find out it was all just a dream.. Or maybe the medicine I'm taking causes sleepwalking, or blackouts.._ he thought as he stared at the ceiling. He ran a number of different theories though his head, but after a while, his eyes shut.

It took Mokuba some time to fall asleep.


	5. Chapter 5

**Resurfaced**

**Chapter 5**

Mokuba managed to sleep through the night without any strange dreams, so he woke up feeling well-rested and refreshed. The first thing he did was give his arms a good stretch, and greet the day with a smile. The events of the previous day seemed to leave his mind, he didn't give it so much as a second thought. It also happened to be Sunday, so he knew he definitely wasn't going to school today.

He went about his morning routine quick, dressed and ready for the day before long, and ran off to find Seto. After checking his big brother's room, then his office, then a few other rooms, he stopped to pull his cellphone out of his pocket. The younger Kaiba figured Seto must be out, or in one of the other numerous rooms, but he rathered to make a call than to spend hours trying to look in every room of the estate.

He stood there waiting as the phone rang a few times. It then picked up.

"Mokuba?" spoke Seto's voice.

"Yup, it's me. Where are you?"

"I'm arranging for these guys to get that stuff out of your room. I'm glad you're awake. Do you think you can stay out of your room until it's cleared?"

"Sure. When are they gonna come?"

There was a pause as Mokuba heard Seto speak to someone else for a moment, then resumed. "They'll be there in thirty minutes. You can go back to your room when they all leave. Until then, do something else. You can go out if you want to."

"Out? Could you and I do something?"

"Sorry, I can't. I have a meeting after this."

"Oh. Okay." he was a bit disappointed to hear that.

"Don't worry, Mokuba. It's as I said, I have a lot of work to do to make up for my lost time, but as soon as I get it all caught up, we can go out and do something. It can be anything you want."

"Really? Anything?" his eyes lit up.

"Anything. I promise."

"Great! I'll think about it!"

"It'll be a few weeks at least, so you have plenty of time to decide. Anyway, I need to get going. I'll see you later, Mokuba."

"Okay, Seto. Thanks again!"

"No problem. Goodbye."

"Bye!"

And with that, he slapped his cellphone shut, and slid it back into his pocket. _Anything I want.._ he thought merrily with shut eyes. But then those eyes opened back up, realizing that it sounded like he was going to have the house to himself most of the day. With all his homework being done, that meant he was freed up to spend his time however he wanted.

His face faulted into a blank expression. The next realization was that he was going to be alone..there were the housekeepers of course, but they were always busy.

"I guess I'll be by myself for a while.." his hands found their way into his pockets as he stood there, wondering what to do next. "I wish Seto didn't have to be so busy all the time.."

Since he had been instructed to avoid his room until the medical equipment was removed, and he didn't really feel like going out anywhere, he decided to watch some TV. He wandered into the main family room, where a sizable TV was built into the wall. He walked up to the screen, the remote being kept in a small slot just under it.

Reaching with his right, he stopped a moment as his reflection in the TV's screen caught his attention. He became frozen for a moment.

"...Mokuba." he found his mouth saying. His hand reached to touch his reflection, doing so on its own. "You don't have to be alone."

He abruptly withdrew his arm and pulled back away from the TV, gasping as if his breath had been held, with nothing short of a horrified look on his face.

Mokuba's sock-bound feet slammed on the floor as he bolted out of the room. He kept running, going in no particular direction, just zooming around the estate as though to think that if he ran fast and far enough, he'd get away from whatever it was that made him speak and move like that.

Though he only had so much energy to spare for a terror-fled panic, thus he became exhausted relatively quick, but even at this point, he kept on going. He didn't stop until he tripped over his own legs, stumbling furiously, landing on his hand and knees..wheezing heavily.

"Go away...!" he shouted at his surroundings, in hopes that whatever it was would hear. The boy's arms then gave out, and he dizzily fell completely to the floor, passing out.

* * *

It felt like no sooner than a moment had gone by before Mokuba's eyes opened back up. He looked around to see that he was still where he'd been, only, something about it seemed different..perhaps unreal. He rose to his feet, suddenly not feeling tired anymore.

"Mokuba." a voice spoke from behind.

He whipped right around, seeing none other than the gray figure that had been in his dreams. There were distinct changes in the person, it now was wearing an outfit..a longsleeve shirt of sorts with a collar hugging the neck, shorts that didn't go past the knees, long socks that reached up just under the knees, and a pair of simple shoes. The person also had a face now..eyes, a nose, a mouth..but although this person was still entirely gray, Mokuba could see enough details to recognize who it was.

"Noa.." he uttered, almost as a whisper.

The figure solemnly nodded, "Kaiba Noa. That is my name. I didn't mean to scare you so much just before."

Everything around felt as it would in a dream, yet, Mokuba was aware as though it weren't. It gave him a chance to think clearly as he turned around fully to face Noa, with a mix of shock and awe in his eyes.

"Have you..you've been in my dreams? The person remembering?"

Noa nodded again, "Yes, that was me."

"Did you do my homework for me yesterday?"

"Yes, that was me too.."

"H..how did you do it?"

"I did it through you." Noa's gray eyes shut for the moment. "I wanted to experience the world again, but I also wanted to do something for you in return. The work you were doing was easy for me."

"..And you ate dinner with my brother?"

"Yeah.." the gray one put a hand to the back of his head as his eyes opened back up, with an embarrassed smile. "I'm sorry about that too..it's just been so many years since I've eaten real food. It felt great."

Mokuba shook his head disbelievingly, remembering that it seemed Noa had been destroyed along with Gozaburo, their step-father, in the virtual world he'd been trapped in. "Where did you come from? How did you get here?"

"That, I don't know. I don't remember it yet. But I do know that somehow..I'm inside your body."

The long haired boy's skin crawled at this thought, but Noa continued.

"It's pretty lucky that I ended up with you. What would happen to me if it had been anyone else? Seto, perhaps? He would want to get rid of me, I'm sure.." his tone took a turn into subtle anger.

"..Are you mad at Seto?" though subtle, he was still able to pick up on the change in Noa's voice.

"..I remember my father adopting him and you. I don't remember anything past that yet."

"Noa, we wouldn't do anything to harm you, but I don't think Seto will be happy that you're in me.." he looked downward after saying that, thinking to himself. _Is this like it was for Yugi, and Bakura? And that Marik guy? Each of them with a dark spirit inside? This probably isn't the same thing, but.._

"I'm sure he won't." Noa replied, still with the same tone. _As Gozaburo's true son, KaibaCorp was meant to be mine. But something must have happened to prevent that.._ he thought to himself.

Mokuba looked back up, "Well..however you got here..I'm glad that you're back."

Noa's eyes became surprised. "You are?" the tone left his voice.

"Of course." he said with a nod, accompanied by a compassionate smile. "I thought you were going to be gone forever, but now, maybe I can still keep the promise I made you."

"What promise?"

"I guess you don't remember it yet, but I said that it was possible for us to make you a bio-chemical body with KaibaCorp's technology. It won't be the same as a real body, but that's what I told you. That I could probably have my brother make something like that for you."

"..Is that what you said?" Noa's eyes trailed again to the floor.

"That's what I said. And you can also check out the cool things we've been doing with KaibaCorp. Even after we'd left that virtual world, I thought about how it would be great if we could show you the new KaibaLands we were planning."

Noa remained silent. _Was there a reason he wants to be nice to me? Did I do something nice for them before? I don't remember anything about that yet, if there was anything..I can't even think of a reason why I would be nice._

"..But, I think the first thing is getting us separated. I don't mind sharing, but this is a little extreme.."

"..Yes, I understand. But until we can figure something out, would it be okay for me to borrow you for a while? I want to enjoy having flesh while I can."

"Um..I guess so. But only when I say it's okay." he blinked at a sudden thought. "..Am I asleep right now?"

"Something like that. Hibernation would probably be a better word."

"You can make me do that?" Mokuba asked with a blink.

"If I concentrate, I can overtake you. But I didn't do it all the way, I just wanted to get you to the point where I could talk to you. I didn't want you to be afraid of me."

"Um..you need my permission to do that, too. Someone will probably notice me passing out if you keep making me."

"I can make you wake up now, if you'd like."

"Hmm..yeah, I should probably be awake before someone notices me. Then I can tell Seto about..." his eyes looked towards the ceiling for a moment. "..Actually, I should probably wait until you get all of your memories back before I tell him." he focused again on Noa. "Do you know how long it will take?"

"I have no idea."

"Well..from the looks of it, it seem like it's happening pretty fast..maybe a few more days..but anyway, I'll wait until then. We'll figure out a way to help you." he closed his statement with a confident nod.

"..Thank you, Mokuba."

"It's no problem." he smiled again.

"...Before I wake you up, though..you said you were going to be alone for a while."

"Oh..you heard that?"

"I can hear you speaking sometimes. Did you want to play a game together?"

"Um..is that possible without me being unconscious?"

"I think I can do it while you're awake. We can play chess, and I'll move my pieces if you shut your eyes."

"Really?" he looked a bit weirded out.

"I can't say for certain, but I think we can make it work that way. You don't have to be by yourself."

"Um..would it be okay for us to play a different game? It's been years since I played chess."

"I don't mind. Any game you want to play, I'll play."

"Okay, great." he smiled yet again. "Wake me up now, and we can play Capmon. I can explain the rules to you."

"Certainly."

And just like that, Mokuba woke up. He noticed he was still laying on the floor, so he quickly picked himself up and took a glance around the hallway. No one else was around, luckily. Then with a nod, he headed for his room. The medical equipment was all gone, to his delight.

After Mokuba set the gameboard up, he explained the rules aloud to seemingly no one. From there, he would move a piece, then shut his eyes. His hand moved on its own, guiding the pieces on the other side. The experience was incredibly weird, but he was happy to at least have someone to play games with while he had nothing better to do. He won the first few games, but then Noa's gameplay improved enough to provide a difficult challenge, and he started winning some.

"You catch on quick!" Mokuba said aloud.

_Of course, it comes natural._ Noa replied as a voice in his head.

The two spent the rest of the day playing various games.

* * *

Seto didn't come back home until just before Mokuba was about to go to bed. The elder Kaiba crossed paths with his little brother, and the younger Kaiba greeted him with a hug.

"How'd today go for you, Mokuba?" he asked, returning the hug with one of his own.

"It went great! It's not so bad having the place to myself."

"I'm glad to hear it. Do you think you'll be able to go to school tomorrow?"

"Yep, definitely."

Unknowingly to Mokuba, Noa was listening. While the day had been fun for him too, he who never really had any friends, he heard Seto's voice with contempt. As much as he could remember, he knew that they had been rivals, even if Seto hadn't been aware of his existence at the time Gozaburo had brought the two brothers into his family. Noa knew he had to be the reason something went awry with KaibaCorp not becoming his. He didn't pay much attention to the rest of the conversation, keeping his presence obscure in the back of Mokuba's mind.

When the dark-haired boy finally went to bed, Noa quietly stewed as his memory of hate towards Seto gradually emerged.


	6. Chapter 6

**Resurfaced**

**Chapter 6**

Mokuba was once again able to sleep without Noa interfering. He woke up to the buzzing of his alarm clock, bright and early for the school day. After fighting away the grogginess, he got up and got ready in a timely fashion. Once the the young Kaiba was good to go, he walked briskly outside, where his limo ride was waiting to pick him up. He jumped right into the long car, slammed the door shut, and it drove off.

The driver spoke to Mokuba through a little intercom system built into the vehicle, "Feeling better today, Mr. Kaiba?"

He pushed a button on a side panel to respond, "Yes I am, thanks."

"It's good that you've recovered well, a lot of the staff was worried about you."

"Aw, it wasn't that big of a.."

His sentence trailed off as he recalled the events of that day with a sudden realization. The issue with Noa's emergence didn't begin until after he'd been shocked by the cable when the purge on the box of ports commenced. _Is that how it happened? Was Noa in that box? Did he get put into me when I got zapped?_

"Mr. Kaiba?"

"Ah--" he was interrupted from the thought. "I was just remembering it.."

"Oh, I'm sorry, Sir. I didn't mean to bring up troubled times for you."

"No, it's okay. I'm fine, really."

The driver didn't say anything further, which left Mokuba looking thoughtfully out the window. _Noa's base was in the ocean..and that box came from the sea..maybe it didn't get thoroughly destroyed by the missile? And that part drifted until it washed up on the beach..?_

Just then, a beeping sounded from the pocket of his pants, which he recognized as his cellphone receiving something. He jammed his hand inside, whipped it out, and flipped it open. It was a text message from Seto: Hey Mokuba, I won't be home until late again today, so the same rules as yesterday go for today. I'll see you later, thanks for being patient.

"Man..he wasn't kidding about being extra busy." Mokuba lamented aloud.

The limo soon stopped just infront of the school.

"We're here. Good luck today, Mr. Kaiba."

"Thanks again."

The black-haired boy hopped out of the car, and jogged into the building, amid the clamor of other arriving and chatty students. The limo drove away.

Throughout the school day, Mokuba listened to the lectures with less interest than usual. He had other thoughts bombarding his mind to the point that things like math and writing didn't seem so important. Among other things, he noticed Noa seemed to be quiet. There hadn't been any weird experiences, odd dreams, or voices in his head since yesterday. He looked down at his desk, tapping his pencil against the textbook idly, feeling somewhat concerned.

"..Are you awake?" he whispered to himself. He had no idea if Noa could actually sleep as he was, but it seemed like sound reasoning.

"Kaiba." the teacher spoke.

"Yes?" Mokuba's head attentively whipped right up.

"Pay attention, please."

"Yes, sensei, sorry." he said with a quick bow of his head.

The rest of the school day dragged on in this manner, which made him glad when it was finally over. He eagerly ran outside with the rush of other students leaving, quickly dashing to his limo once he spotted where it was waiting for him. The door flung open and slammed shut, with Mokuba bouncing onto the backseat.

"Welcome back, Mr. Kaiba." said the chauffeur. "Did you want to go to a game shop again?"

"No thanks, let's just go straight home." came the preteen's reply.

"Right away, Sir."

And with that, the limo started off. The ride back home was uneventful, all Mokuba did was stare out the window as everything around rushed by. When the car came to a halt infront of the estate, he jumped out with the same enthusiasm as before..even forgetting to thank the driver, which he had always made a habit of doing. The chauffeur didn't seem to mind, though. He left to park the vehicle elsewhere.

Yet another door was flung wide open, the one to Mokuba's room, which was then closed with a well-placed kick from the heel. The long-haired boy flew out of his uniform and into his regular clothes, then sat himself down at his desk with the schoolwork of the day in hand. Mokuba preferred to get the assignments done as soon as he got home to free up his evenings.

It didn't feel like very long before he'd finished, the large amount he had to do last time dwarfed the amount of just one day's worth of studies. Having completed it, he left the papers on his desk, and flopped onto his bed. With this being his first day of school since the incident, his energy was still being sapped more quickly than usual.

"Noa.." he said aloud. "If you can hear me, you can do something while I'm napping. Just for an hour, maybe."

That stated, Mokuba closed his eyes.

* * *

One of the housekeepers was in the elaborate kitchen of the estate, sweeping up the floor, as it was her room of priority to keep clean. She hummed pleasantly to herself, being one of the few maids that enjoyed her shift. The cleaning became interrupted once a certain young Kaiba wandered into the area, for she held the broom upright as she stopped to greet his entry with a sincere smile.

"Ah, good day, Mokuba. How are you feeling?" This particular keeper wasn't so formal, since she'd been working for the brothers for a number of years.

The boy responded with an odd sort of grin, "I feel great. Everything feels great."

"That's great." she said with a nod. She had expected him to go on his way, but at seeing that he continued to just stand there and stare at her, she spoke again, "Is there something I can do for you?"

"I want to eat a snack." he simply stated.

"Oh..well, I don't keep track of what the chef makes.." she did a quick look around, and noticed one of the counters had a plate of chocolate chip cookies that must've been baked recently. She pointed over, "I see cookies there."

"Cookies!" he eagerly shouted. Without delay, he ran to the plate..grabbing a cookie in each hand, and stuffing them in his mouth ravenously. The maid only watched with a particular awe. After he had gone through about five cookies in a very short amount of time, she felt compelled to interrupt.

"Ah..don't you think you're eating a little much?" she asked with a nervous wave of her hand.

He looked back at her, chocolate smeared across his mouth, "What do you mean? They're delicious!"

"Um..I mean, if you keep eating those cookies like that, you might make yourself sick."

"I haven't eaten a lot of them, have I?"

"Well..for cookies, five of that size seems like a bit much.."

The boy blinked, "Ohh..it's different for these things, huh? It's been a long time since I've had them."

_I don't think it's been __**that**__ long.._ the maid thought to herself. "I think it would be in your best interest not to eat anymore for now."

"Right. Okay. I don't want to make Mo-...myself sick. They were delicious, by the way."

Before the maid had time to say anything else, he dashed out of the room. She blinked to herself a few times.

"..What's gotten into him?"

The next encounter "Mokuba" had was with another housekeeper, whom was vacuuming one of the many hallways. She too stopped her work once she saw the boy out of the corner of her eye, staring at her from behind. She set the vacuum upright and standing.

"Hello, Mr. Kaiba." she turned to say, also with a pleasant air about her, but she blinked oddly at him upon seeing his mouth caked with chocolate.

"Hello. Can you show me which room my brother sleeps in?"

"Uh?" came her confused response.

"Don't you know which room he sleeps in?"

"Well..yes..but I thought you knew that too."

"I'm making sure _you_ know where it is. And you can prove it by showing me."

The maid didn't see a reason behind this questioning, but she figured it would be better to comply than to debate over it. "This way.." she started, leaving the vacuum in its place. "Mokuba" followed shortly behind.

After some length of walking, she stopped infront of a particular polished oaken door, holding a hand out before it. "This is Kaiba Seto's bedroom."

The boy gave an affirming nod, "Good work. You passed the test. I'll have Seto give you a bonus, or something."

"Oh, thank you, Sir." she smiled. "Am I excused to resume my work?"

"Yes, go right ahead." he said with another nod.

The housekeeper went back to where she'd left the vacuum, and "Mokuba" turned to look at the door. He gave it a hard stare for some time before he took his leave as well.

* * *

Mokuba woke up from his nap to the unpleasant feeling of needing his teeth brushed. He spent the rest of the day getting his stuff ready for school tomorrow, and then watching TV. Although he realized that Noa must have been doing something while he'd been napping, he couldn't coax him into saying anything. Mokuba tacked it on Noa needing rest since he couldn't think of any other reason, but he became more concerned as time went by.

"Are you okay, Noa?" he found himself asking when no one was around, but every time, he got no response.

Bedtime eventually came, thus Mokuba tucked himself in. He was actually hoping for a strange dream this time, just to know if Noa was indeed okay or not. After a while of running various thoughts through his head, he fell asleep.

* * *

Just as he predicted, Seto returned to the estate late that night. He walked through the front doors with his briefcase in one hand, and other hand in the pocket of his trenchcoat. Being rather tired from a day full of business errands, he was looking forward to getting some sleep. On the way to his room through the darkened mansion, he stopped by Mokuba's room for a moment.

He quietly pulled his hand out of his coat pocket to turn the doorknob, and crack the door open a slight to give a peek into the room. Satisfied to see that his little brother was resting peacefully, he closed the door and continued onwards to his own bedroom.

Unbeknownst to him, Mokuba's eyes opened the instant the door had shut.

The elder Kaiba brother put his briefcase away in his office, then headed for his room. He happened to have his own private bathroom next to his bedroom, and he got himself ready from there, dressing into longsleeve silk pajamas. The young man set the alarm clock on his nightstand, knowing he would have more business ventures to go on the next day. Once that had been completed, he slid under the covers, laying down on his front, and promptly fell asleep with his face snug in the pillow.

About half-hour later, the door to Seto's bedroom opened. Mokuba's silhouetted form stood in the doorway, his eyes reflecting what little light there was with a glaringly hateful stare, and one of the handkerchiefs he commonly wore around his neck in his unbandaged hand.

_Kaiba Seto..._ he thought. _KaibaCorp was meant to be mine. You took that away from me. My father forgot about me because of you. And the only reason Mokuba likes you is because of the bond of blood you two have, being brothers. If it wasn't for that, he would hate you as much as I do...for all the times you treated him badly for your own gain._

He slowly approached the bed, to the resting Kaiba brother.

_We'll be better off without you._

He carefully crawled onto the bed, stretching the handkerchief out between his two hands. Seto was in a relatively deep sleep, one enough not to notice the young body's weight nearing him, nor the stretch of cloth being slipped under his neck. Once it had been nudged far enough, a diligent hand pulled it the rest of the way out the other side.

Both ends of the handkerchief gripped with each hand, poised to pull.

As ready as he felt he was to strangle Seto, Noa just sat there. The frown on Mokuba's face deepened, and the hands began to lightly quiver. _Do it. Do it do it do it. Now or never._

The motion still did not come.

_Dammit..why is this so hard? This was a lot easier in the virtual world..things could be deleted at just at a command. I have to actually __**kill**__ him to do the same thing here._

His expression suddenly became a fearful one as the gravity of his intentions started sinking in.

_..No one will know it was me..but they won't think it was Mokuba, will they? How would they find out? Handkerchiefs don't leave fingerprints, do they? I could just blame one of the maids, couldn't I? Mokuba wouldn't know anything about-_

Noa's train of thought derailed and crashed into a hillside at the feeling of movement on the bed. Seto turned, half-asleep, looking up towards his little brother with a squint.

"..Mokuba?"

In a panic-induced spasmodic motion, Noa pulled at the cloth around Seto's neck as hard as he could.

"G—gkk!"

Seto immediately sat up, grabbing at the handkerchief around his neck, trying to pull at it to get some air into his throat. When this didn't work, his hands trailed along the cloth, until they went past the offender's hands and to the forearms. From there, he got a firm grip on the arms, and threw them up and over his head, with little to no concern over who was doing this. Seto was too startled and confused to really care.

Mokuba's body flew with the motion, squarely hitting the headboard of the bed with his own head. He dropped, the cloth falling out of his hands, unconscious.

Seto took the moment to breathe, huffing air back into his lungs. Once he did, he looked to see the fallen form of his younger sibling. Though shocked to see him, he did not believe even for an instant that what just happened was Mokuba deliberately trying to kill him. He took the boy into his arms, first checking to see if he sustained any injuries from the toss. When he confirmed that nothing was broken, thankful for the cushy mop of black hair on his head, Seto reached out to grab his cellphone, and then carried his brother out.

After the slow walk to Mokuba's room, Seto placed him in his bed, tucking him in. He brought a chair over to the bed, and sat himself down in it while he opened up the cellphone, pushing a few buttons to make a call. The phone was pressed to the elder Kaiba's ear as it rung, picked up by the recipient's voice mail.

"This is Kaiba." he spoke into it. "Cancel all my appointments for tomorrow, and have them rescheduled to the next available time slots. Something more important came up."

And with a push of a button, he ended the call, and closed the cellphone, sliding it into a front pocket on his pajamas.

Seto slept in the chair with crossed arms as he waited for Mokuba to wake up.


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's note:** Hanasaki is the last name of one of Yugi's school buddies from the early manga. ( I only have volumes 1 and 3. ) The character in my fic has no relation to that character whatsoever, I just grabbed it as a filler name. Same with Bastanchury, though that name is a street name from around where I live. Also, I apologize for the amount of time this chapter took, I found myself being extremely uninspired for it. x.x

**Resurfaced**

**Chapter 7**

Much like the last time Noa had talked to him, Mokuba was aware of being asleep and dreaming. He stood, looking around to notice that there was nothing in the area, just a darkness that seemed to go on forever. While it bothered him a bit, he neverminded it and just turned around, since Noa tended to show up from behind..and he was right, Noa was indeed not far behind, but the kid was laying face-down as though unconscious. This time, there was some color to him..though only in his outfit, which was mostly white with purple trimmings, blue socks, brown shoes, and his hair resumed being the soft green with sea-green bangs. Everything else was still gray.

"Noa!" Mokuba exclaimed with obvious worry. He darted right over to the fallen one and dropped to his knees, first giving him some nudging with a hand to his back. "What's wrong? What happened?"

When this didn't work, he tried turning Noa onto his side to get a better look at his face. The full-blooded Kaiba looked no different than someone sleeping...or maybe dead, Mokuba couldn't tell. He placed a hand near Noa's nose to feel for a breath. Just before the terror could set in at not feeling anything, he remembered that they were sharing a body.

_The only way Noa could die is if I die.._ he thought. With that idea in mind, he put his hand to his own nose. Once again, he felt nothing. The terror came back raging, at the notion that he could be dead.

"AAH-"

"..ah!" Mokuba's eyes flung open, scared awake from the dream. He sat up in his bed, huffing and heart beating hard. All he did for the moment was stare at the bedsheets just infront of himself. The room was dimmed, suggesting that early morning was out and about.

"Mokuba?"

The younger sibling looked over to notice that Seto was sitting in a chair next to his bed..and from the looks of it, he hadn't slept well at all.

"Seto?" he asked with surprise.

The elder brother gave him a vague smile, "How are you feeling?"

"I..I'm fine.." came the answer as Mokuba timidly looked back down at the sheets. "I had a bad dream.."

"..What about?" Seto leaned in a bit. As tired as he looked, he was very attentive.

"Um.." his ever deep gray-blue eyes skimmed along the bed as he answered. "It was..I thought I died."

"..Hmm."

A moment of silence passed as Seto's hands came together, chin resting atop them.

"..Mokuba, do you remember coming into my bedroom last night, after I returned?"

A confused blink was made as those gray-blue eyes set onto his Nii-sama.

"What do you mean?"

"I'll explain after you answer my question." he simply stated.

Another blink to that. Mokuba wondered if Noa had done something, but having no idea about it, he couldn't say anything to cover it up without making an outright lie.

"Uh..ah..can you tell me a little about it first?"

Seto's eyes shut. "..Is that a no?"

"..Yes. I don't remember going to your room." he responded with a defeated expression. He really didn't want to have to lie to his brother, of all people.

"Well..you were in my room last night."

"..What did I do?"

"..You woke me up from my sleep. I got startled and hit you on the head. It knocked you out, and so I brought you back to your room. I've been waiting here since." Seto wasn't much into lying either, but he certainly didn't have the nerve to give the full details of the attempted strangling, figuring that it would devastate his little brother if he knew.

"I woke you up?"

"Mmhm." he nodded. "And I've been giving it some thought. I remember when we had dinner together when you ate too much...you were acting strangely though the whole meal, but I didn't give it much concern at the time. You later asked me what you'd done like you didn't remember it.."

Mokuba seemed to sink a bit into his bed, clutching the sheets nervously as Seto continued.

"..And I didn't tell you, but the first time you woke up after getting that shock, you were babbling about wanting to see our father. You didn't recognize me, either. The next time you woke up after that, you didn't remember saying those things.."

"..Is that why you asked me my name, then?"

"Yes, that's why I asked..I didn't think anything of that either once you were back to normal, but.." Seto's blue eyes opened back up slowly, darkened by the dimness of the room. "..it seems to me like since that incident, you keep having these periods of odd behavior that you don't remember..and I'm very concerned about it now."

Mokuba's expression furrowed in a worried manner. "..Seto, I don't think it's a problem. Maybe if we wait a few days, it'll stop for good."

"This is very serious, Mokuba."

"No.." he shooks his head. "I'm sure it's not. Let's wait a few days at least before doing anything. If it happens one more time, then we can do something about it. I really think it'll be okay."

The silk-clad brother's eyes went blank. "..Are you afraid of something? I don't think we should wait on this..if you have another lapse of whatever this is, you could hurt someone or yourself without realizing it."

"It's not that I'm afraid Seto, I just.." he looked down at the sheets again. "I just think it's too soon. Can't we wait a few more days?"

Seto sighed through his nose. "I guess we can wait..but for now, I think it would be best if we treated this like an illness. You're not going to school today, and I want you to stay in your room. Is that clear?"

"Yes, I'm okay with that." he firmly nodded.

"Alright, then.." Seto stood up from his chair. "I've taken the day off too. I'll be checking on you, and if you need anything, you can call me. I'll bring your meals to you, and if you want to play some games, we can do that too."

"Oh..but Seto..didn't you say you were really busy?"

The taller brother shook his head, "This is more important."

Mokuba looked downward again..he felt bad to be taking up more of his sibling's important time. _I need to talk to Noa, and figure out what happened.._

"I wanna go back to sleep, if that's okay, Seto.."

"That's fine. I guess I'll try to get some sleep too, but remember, you can call me anytime."

"Yeah, I will. Thanks, Seto."

"Of course, Mokuba. Get as much rest as you want."

With that said, the elder Kaiba brother exited the room, shutting the door quietly. Mokuba near-immediately laid back down, wanting to go back to sleep as quickly as possible. Naturally, it was a lot harder for him to sleep when having too many thoughts running through his head, so it was a good few hours before he did finally drift off into slumber.

In the meantime, Seto went back to his room, drooping to a sit on his bed with his cellphone in hand. With a flick of his fingers, the device opened up, and he pushed a few buttons for a quick-dial. He pressed it to his ear as it rang, and someone picked up.

"Hello, this is Dr. Hanasaki."

"This is Kaiba."

"Oh—Good morning, Mr. Kaiba. What are you calling about?"

"My little brother has been having some problems lately, I think it's related to the shocking he'd been through."

"Yes, I remember. I was supervising his stay at the hospital during that. What are the problems?"

"He's been having memory lapses. And during those lapses, he acts different..just being unlike himself. He's also mentioned having nightmares, if that's relevant.."

"Oh my.. That's really been happening? How strange.."

"Yeah. I know that's not normal, so you don't need to tell me." A grouchiness induced from lack of sleep began to escape into Seto's voice. "Does it sound like anything?"

"Hm..well, can you be more specific about how he acts differently?"

"He's like a different person, pretty much."

"Huh.. Off the top of my head, that sounds like dissociative identity disorder. But it could be any form of damage to the brain, or just his psyche I believe...we would have to take him back in to give you a real analysis and diagnosis. We wouldn't be able to do it from your house, the equipment involved to test something like that can't easily be transfered."

"Right. I want to make an appointment for that.."

* * *

Mokuba was in a room that definitely wasn't his own. None of his things were in it, and it was smaller..in fact, there wasn't much to the room aside from a bed, desk, chair, nightstand, and lamp upon said nightstand. It was rather plain. 

Once he realized he was in the bed, he got out of it and looked around, spotting Noa sitting upright in the one chair. He didn't look any different, still color only to his outfit and hair, and the grayness to his skin..and still seemed to be asleep. The black-haired Kaiba dashed over, putting his hands on Noa's shoulders, giving him a light shake.

"Noa, wake up! Please, wake up, this is really important!"

A few moments of the shaking, and the equally gray eyes finally opened up in a tired manner.

"Mokuba?"

"Yes, it's me." he said with a relieved nod. "Man, you really had me worried."

"Worried?"

"You didn't talk to me for a whole day, and then you were asleep or unconscious, or something.."

"Ngh.." Noa cringed, as if the memory of what occurred struck him with a blow. His hand pressed to the top of his head.

"Are you okay, Noa?" a concerned Mokuba asked.

"..I was hurt for a while. I.." he stopped again, with a wretched feeling of guilt. "..I..used your body without permission..."

"Seto told me about that already.."

Noa's eyes went wide, "He..Seto..he told you?"

"Yeah.." he said, with surprise from the reaction. "He told me that you went into his room and woke him up.."

The gray eyes then blinked a few times. "..Is that all he said?"

"He also said he hit you on the head."

"Oh.." Noa sighed with some manner of empty relief, realizing Seto hadn't told Mokuba all of what occurred.

"Why did you go to my brother's room last night?"

"..Before I answer that, can I ask a question?"

"Um..I guess so."

"Do you..think I'm a good person?"

Mokuba was caught off guard by that, though he answered soundly. "Well..you did some pretty awful things..but I never really thought you were a bad person. You did a lot of what you did because of your father..it was more his fault than yours, I think."

The lids fell half-way over Noa's eyes as his gaze dipped to the floor, "I see.."

"Why are you asking?"

"Simply put..I wanted to know how much damage I'll do telling you what I was doing."

"What are you saying? Did you try to do something bad?"

"..Mokuba, as my memories have been coming back, one thing that really stands out in my mind..is how much I hate your brother."

"Ah..?" he gasped in a confused sort of way.

"Everything that was his should have been mine..I deserve it more than he does..but.."

"No, it doesn't have to be that way anymore!" Mokuba suddenly interrupted. "If we can get you your own body, then you can share with us! I'm sure Seto will let you be part of KaibaCorp, especially after what your father put you though.."

That caught Noa's full attention. "What?"

"Oh..you don't remember that yet, huh?" his mouth pressed into a thin line. "What's the latest thing you remember?"

"..I remember bringing you all into my virtual world. The Big 5 and I were going to escape though the bodies that came, after proving their worth to me.."

"Oh..then it shouldn't be much longer before you remember everything else.."

"..Are you saying there isn't much more left to remember?"

"Well.." Mokuba now looked downward. "..I shouldn't say. It's better if you learn on your own."

The teal-haired one raised his stare, which was now hardened. "Either ways..I want you to know what I did in your brother's room."

"Was there more to it than just that? Seto didn't say anything else happened."

"..He probably wanted to protect you by not telling you..but I was going to try to kill him."

Mokuba's hands flew off Noa's shoulders as he took a step backward. Noa continued.

"I went into his room while he was sleeping..I had every intention of strangling him with some cloth I found. I didn't really think about what I was about to do until the last moment..that's when I couldn't stop thinking about what would happen to _you_ if I went through with it.." The gray eyes lowered to the floor yet again, with his mouth gritting, appearing rather upset. "You're the one protecting me..and I was going to put you in danger by doing that.."

The initial shock of this confession softened along with Mokuba's expression, which now became one of worried concern.

"..But even though I thought of that, I still tried to do it anyway. Seto saw me there, and I panicked. I tried to strangle him. He grabbed me and threw me..and I don't remember what happened after that. I guess that's when I got hit."

Mokuba went quiet in an effort to think of what to say. Noa simply waited it out, opening the room to a silence so heavy, it weighed uncomfortably on the boys' shoulders until the sable-haired one found words to speak with.

"Noa.." he began. "..I promised to help you, but only if you didn't have any bad ideas for when you came out with us. You wouldn't remember that yet..so I want you to agree to this promise now. I'll help you out, but only if you won't try to do bad things anymore."

"..Are you willing to forgive me that easily?"

"You're not completely yourself yet. I know that through it all, you're a good person." _..You wouldn't have helped us escape that virtual world if you weren't._ he added to himself.

"I..find it weird that you'd be willing. I thought you'd hate me for this."

"You did a really terrible thing. I'm definitely not saying I'm okay with what you did, but I want to give you a chance, at least. Though, if you try to hurt him again.."

"I won't. I promise. I don't want to do anything that'll hurt you." he said with an affirming nod.

"Good." Mokuba cheered up at that. "I can't protect you all that well if anything happened to Seto, or me." then his expression went blank, recalling what occurred just before. "But..we've got another problem to figure out because of this."

"I'm guessing Seto thinks you're trying to kill him now, huh?"

"He doesn't, but he does think there's something wrong with me. I had to talk him out of taking me to a hospital. This isn't something a doctor can cure, that's for sure."

"Did you tell him about me?"

"No. I still wanna wait until you get all your memories back..you might know how you got here in the first place. I'm pretty sure that'd be important to know when we explain to Seto about you..being in me."

"Yeah, I still don't remember that, assuming there's anything about it _to_ remember."

"I guess all I can do for now is just try to convince him that there's nothing wrong with me..so I'm going to have to ask you not to use my body at all until you have all your memories back."

"Are you sure?" Noa asked with obvious displeasure. "It's really boring when I'm conscious and you're conscious too. All I can do is lurk and listen."

"Hmm.." Mokuba gave it a brief thinking over as his hand came to rest on top of his head. "Well..maybe we can play a game together when the chance comes up. Seto said he was gonna be checking up on me a lot..and then he also said we could play games.." he huffed a sigh suddenly. "..I really don't get many chances to spend time with him like this.."

".. I understand. We can do something another day, I guess.." he said, with a mildly despondent tone. That made Mokuba feel a little worse about it.

"..Okay! I got it, I'll just wait until after Seto wants to stop playing games with me. Then we can do something for the rest of the day."

"If you think it's too risky, we don't have to do anything.."

"No, it'll be fine, I'm sure. Seto always knocks before he comes into my room, so if he comes to check on me while we're doing something, you can back out real quick, right?"

"Yeah, that wouldn't be a problem.."

"See? It'll be fine!" he stated with a confident nod. "We can spend time together today, too!"

A gentle smile formed on Noa's face, "..Thank you, Mokuba. I appreciate it."

"Don't mention it." he responded with a bigger and less delicate smile of his own, which eased up as he thought to ask, "By the way, what is this place? It doesn't look like anyplace I've been."

"This.." Noa looked around for a moment. "..This is my old room. I was remembering it.."

"That's why I don't recognize it, then." he said, looking somewhat surprised. "Is this your dream?"

"I'm not too sure, but I'd assume so. Maybe it was brought about from taking that hit."

"Man, this is really weird." Mokuba commented with an embarrassed smile, anchoring his fists on his hips. "I mean, I've said it was weird before, but when I really think about it..it's just really weird. It makes me wonder how Yugi dealed with it."

The teal-haired boy raised an eyebrow, "Who's Yugi?"

"Oh—um, he's sorta a friend of mine. He was one of the people you trapped in your virtual world."

"Is that so? Which one was he?"

"The one with the hair."

"Oh." Noa immediately recalled the captive with the maddeningly spiked and colored hair. "That one.."

"He's helped my brother and I out a lot before. But anyway, I should wake up now. I wanna spend time with Seto."

"Wait," he raised a hand in a halting motion, "what did you mean by how Yugi dealt with it?"

"He..Yugi had an ancient spirit in his body..I was thinking that this is kinda like that, maybe."

He then lowered his hand and raised an eyebrow. "What? An ancient spirit? That doesn't make sense."

"It's a very long story.."

"Eh, I'm not really that interested to hear about it. Did you want me to wake you up now?"

"Yes, please." he eagerly nodded.

And just like that, Mokuba's eyes opened. He took the moment to reaffirm his surroundings..and he was greeted with the comforting sight of his own room.

"Ah.." he sat himself up in his bed, glancing out the window.

The sun had moved higher into the sky.

* * *

At the KaibaCorp hospital, Dr. Hanasaki was walking down a particularly long stretch of a hallway, doors lined up to the left and right with patients getting their diagnosis, resting in beds, or undergoing check-ups. The man was busily walking before being stopped by another doctor standing before him. This other man had a large pair of round glasses on his face, so wide and thick, his eyes seemed to be obscured behind the lens. 

"Dr. Hanasaki." he greeted plainly.

"Dr. Bastanchury." Hanasaki greeted with equal response.

Bastanchury wasted no time in getting to the point, "I heard the announcement you made in the staff office. The little Kaiba brother is going to be coming back here under mysterious conditions?"

"Essentially. Mr. Kaiba doesn't know what's wrong with him, and it sounds like a mental condition we'll need to do some extensive monitoring on to figure out."

"Is that so?" he asked, pushing his glasses further up on his nose with an index finger. "A mental condition? And you'll be overseeing his stay here?"

"Of course. I normally do."

"You don't do it when a special case comes up for the other patients assigned to you."

"That's because they trust my expertise. Are you getting at something?"

"You know I specialize in behavioral conditions." he stated with a slight lowering of his head, the lens' reflecting a bit of light at the angle. "This sounds like a case that would be better suited for my skills. After all, my brother works in the pharmaceutical field, developing medicines for things of this sort."

"We don't know what's wrong with him yet, Bastanchury. We don't know if this is the sort of thing you can stabilize with drugs."

"Eitherways, I believe I should be the one to oversee his stay here. I'll follow the protocol accordingly, and if it turns out that it's not a behavioral condition, then I'll gladly hand the work back over to you. There's no harm in that, is there?"

"I suppose there isn't, but it's not my call to make. You'd have to speak with Mr. Kaiba. Where his little brother is concerned, he prefers me to take action. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to continue making preparations."

"Of course." Bastanchury said, standing to the side, allowing Hanasaki room to pass.

Hanasaki continued on his way as Bastanchury simply watched on, a slight glare hiding behind the frames before he too walked off, in the opposite direction. The doctor briskly headed into a nearby elevator..standing inside, then turning to face forward with his hands in the pockets of his white coat.

_It's rare that either of the Kaiba brothers get ill enough to merit a stay here. _he thought. _I can't miss this chance._

The elevator doors closed, descending down the shaft.


	8. Chapter 8

**Resurfaced**

**Chapter 8**

The day ended up being completely doleful. Mokuba had hoped that it would at least be a little fun to have his brother around to play games with, but Seto's gloomy mood proved to be an even bigger killjoy than usual. He was so consumed with concern, and it was so painfully obvious, that any attempts Mokuba made at doing something enjoyable were shot down long before they could fly.

The two had breakfast together in Mokuba's room, and the elder Kaiba had nothing but short, one-sided responses to his little brother's conversation starters.

"I feel a lot better now."

"Hm."

"..I guess I'll need to make up work from school for today, too."

"Mmhm."

"..Um..how are the stocks doing?"

"Fine."

"...Are we gonna be going to America again soon?"

"Mm."

It didn't take long before Mokuba gave up, and the two ate in dreary silence.

Lunch was no different, and the time between and after the meals were spent on games that Seto could not have had less enthusiasm for. Throughout a few tries of Capmon and some video games, his hands and eyes carried themselves like dead weights, as well appearing constantly distracted. Which, incidentally, made him play very poorly. Mokuba kept winning, and these victories felt as bitter as defeats since he knew Seto's heart wasn't in it. Or his mind, or that matter.

The preteen finally had all he could stand by the middle of the afternoon.

"Seto, I'd like to rest some more now."

"Alright. You can still call me if you need anything."

"Thanks."

With another brief conversation over, his big brother exited the room, closing the door behind himself. With a sagging head and heart, the little brother sighed as he sat on his legs in his bed.

_I'm sorry, Mokuba. _He heard in his head. _ It's my fault he's like this._

While Noa had no empathy towards Seto, and would sooner enjoy his misery than not, what did make him feel bad about it was how Mokuba was suffering for it. He was the only reason he could give any sort of care towards that whom he deemed responsible for taking KaibaCorp away from him.

"I guess I should have known he wouldn't be himself." the boy mulled aloud in response. "I've never seen him so depressed.."

_If I could take back what I did to him, I would._

"It doesn't do any good. Seto's going to be like this until he knows what's really going on."

_I can't remember my memories any faster._

"I know.." he sighed heavily. "It's frustrating, but there's really nothing we can do about this until then...except being completely normal. Seto might get less worried if nothing else he'd think suspicious happens."

_That's one thing I've got covered. I'm keeping my word, I won't use you for anything until I remember everything._

"I trust you." he gave a slight nod to himself, his eyes momentarily falling down to look at his still bandaged hand. "I guess we can play games now."

_Are you sure you're up to it?_

"I've got nothing better to do while I have to stay in my room. It's that, or take a nap."

_Okay, great. We can stop at any point that you want to, though. I don't want you to feel obligated to play constantly._

"Don't worry about me. You'll be the first one to know if I get tired."

_True._

* * *

The next few hours passed with Mokuba and Noa playing various games while Seto kept to himself and his laptop. Being somewhat addicted to his business, he tried to get at least a little work done. It was something he was capable of doing no matter how bad his moods would get. 

By now, he'd gotten around to getting himself dressed properly, tapping away at the computer in his office. It was shortly before dinner time, which he had the displeasure of knowing through a nagging feeling in his stomach. But then, he got startled by the ringing of his cellphone, which penetrated the silence of the room like a gunshot. He quickly fumbled around with his coat until the noisy thing was taken, opened, and responded to.

"Mokuba?" Seto asked into the phone. He hadn't bothered to look at whose name was on the little LCD screen.

"Mr. Kaiba, this is Dr. Bastanchury."

"Oh. What do you want?" His tact suffered a bit from his mood.

"I just wanted to get into contact with you. Dr. Hanasaki felt I would be in a better position to oversee your little brother's stay at the hospital, so I wanted to get your approval on that decision."

"What? Why you? You've only been working at my hospital for five years."

"I'm more than twice your age, Mr. Kaiba. I may be relatively new to your hospital, but I have far more years of experience over behavioral studies under my belt than Dr. Hanasaki. That's why we mutually agreed that I should be overseeing Mokuba's condition."

"Hanasaki said that, huh?"

"It was his idea. And I know you trust his medical opinions more than any other doctor here."

"..Fine. But if you make so much as a single little mistake..if you even misspell Mokuba's name, you'll be fired immediately."

"I'm not in this business to make mistakes, Mr. Kaiba. I have complete confidence that you'll get a chance to really see my skills prevail here."

"You'd better do more than your best if you want to keep your job."

"Of course. Thank you for your time, Mr. Kaiba."

Seto hung up without saying anything further to the doctor, shoving the phone back into his coat. He grumblingly sighed as he resumed putting his attention to his laptop. Then, out of the corner of his eyes, he noticed the time on the little clock in the bottom of the screen.

_I'd better get going.. _ The trenchcoat-clad Kaiba thought to himself with a grim expression. He stood up from his chair and closed the laptop, leaving it on his desk as he exited the room.

Not long later, Mokuba heard a knock at his door.

"Come in!" he called, just after quickly shoving his gameboard and their pieces under his bed with a sweep of his good hand.

"Mokuba.." he started without opening the door. "Do you want to go out tonight?"

"Out? Do you mean for dinner?" the little brother asked, turning on his legs where he sat on the floor, facing the source of Seto's muffled voice.

"Out." he said simply. "Just out. I want us to go somewhere."

"Uh..okay. Where are we going?"

"No place special. Are you ready to go now, or do you want to get dressed?"

"Right now?"

"Yeah."

"Um.." Mokuba briefly looked down at himself. He'd been wearing his pajamas all day. "..I'll get dressed. Give me a few minutes."

"Okay."

He was quick to get dressed into his red shirt with striped sleeves, teal jeans, blue shoes, and sky-blue handkerchief tied around his neck; the more casual of the two outfits he always wore for whatever reason. Once he'd finished, he opened up the door to see Seto seemingly towering over him, though still with his disheartened state..which disappointed Mokuba quite a bit. He had hoped that his brother's desire to go out stemmed from an improved mood.

"Ready?" the taller brother asked.

"Yeah.." the reply came with a nod.

"Come on then, let's go."

Seto turned and walked his way down the hall, with Mokuba following shortly behind. The two made their way through the estate until they arrived outside, where one of the limos was waiting, the chauffeur holding the car door open for them. As they entered the car, Mokuba felt mildly surprised..this must've meant that Seto had already made arrangements for wherever their destination was to be.

"..Where are we going, Seto?" he asked after they got themselves buckled in.

His big brother kept his bland stare forward..so focused, and yet still out of focus. It made him feel like Seto didn't even want to look at him.

"You'll see." he simply said.

The preteen turned his head to just stare out the window, in both anticipation and worry.

After a while of driving through the busy city traffic, which was dipped in the amber bath of a setting sun, the limo slowed down to a stop. Mokuba blinked as he recognized the massive beige building they were parked infront of.

"Seto.." he began. "..why are we at the hospital?"

At hearing no response, he turned to face his brother..whom had his arms crossed and eyes shut, appearing to be deep in thought.

"Seto?"

The car door on Mokuba's side suddenly opened up. The boy turned, expecting to see the chauffeur, but was instead startled by the presence of two bulky men in white lab coats. He couldn't tell if they were actual doctors, or goons. One of them reached an arm inside, firmly grabbing Mokuba by his upper arm.

"Come with us, please."

"Seto!" he quickly called, wiggling his arm in protest. "Who are these guys?"

It was now that his older brother finally gave a response as he shook his head.

"I'm sorry, Mokuba."

The doctor or goon now forcefully dragged him out of the limo by his arm. The younger Kaiba was so stunned by this turn of events, he went submissive to the efforts of these men. Once he was out of the car, each man held him by one of his arms. It wasn't until they started escorting him to the building that he frantically called out to his sibling with a terrified expression.

"Seto! I'm okay! There's nothing wrong with me! Tell these guys to let me go! You're not really going to let them take me, are you?! Seto?! Seto!!"

Amid the shouting, Seto didn't budge. His arms remained crossed, and his eyes remained shut. It wasn't until Mokuba's voice faded behind the front doors of the hospital that he arched forward, pressing his face into his hands. He sat this way for several minutes.

* * *

After a certain point of being towed along by the two men, Mokuba decided it would be best to just go along with things. If he put too much effort into resisting, they'd probably think he was crazy..and that was likely the whole reason Seto brought him here in the first place. 

_They won't find anything wrong with me as long as I act normal. _He thought to himself as he stared down at the floor tiles passing under his feet.

The first room he was brought to was the daintily decorated room he'd be staying in while analyses would undergo, as one of the goons explained to him. Mokuba wasn't thrilled to hear it. The men stepped out of the room to wait for the boy to get out of his clothes and into a medical gown that had been provided folded up on the bed. As he got into it and dumped his normal outfit onto an empty chair, he noticed the window of the room, closed and draped. Walking up to it, the young Kaiba took a quick peek outside. There was a street rather close to this side of the building..regardless of the room being several stories high, mostly all that could be seen was cars driving by, and other buildings around with their lights brightening the darkened eve.

_Not much of a view.._ he thought.

Once finished, he stepped back out where the men were waiting. Mokuba found himself getting really annoyed at these two men while they brought him to each different room for his various checkups. He wasn't used to being treated like a child, and much less a criminal, which was exactly how he felt under the burden of these hospital goons. Relief from them only came when they were told to leave the room by whomever was administering the implements of scanning, measuring, or poking.

At first, it wasn't any different than a regular physical, which he'd been used to from regular checkups..but later on, there were other sorts of more humiliating checks done, which Mokuba could only assume was part of making sure he was physically healthy in every respect.

After about an eternity passed, condensed into just short of a two hour package, the onyx-haired boy was ready to kiss the floor of his private room when they finally brought him back to it. He was instructed to just stay in the bed while the results were to be analyzed, with the option of either resting, or watching TV on the screen provided, which was propped on the wall with some steel shelving.

"When do I get to eat something?" he asked the coated men.

"Later. You'll be informed, but there's also a water cooler here if you want something to drink."

"..Alright."

With that, he got into the bed, and the goons left. He sighed in relief at the lack of their presence. But just when he through he'd have some time to himself to comb out his thoughts, the door opened yet again, and in came the doctor with thick glasses.

"Hello, Mokuba." he greeted with a pleasant tone. Something about that tone of voice gave Mokuba the creeps..it seemed like a fake joy

"..Hello. Who are you?"

"I'm Dr. Bastanchury." he said, shutting the door behind himself, keeping his other hand in his pocket. "I realize that normally, Dr. Hanasaki is the one to oversee your stay here, but under the circumstances, I've been given that priority."

"There's nothing wrong with me, just so you know."

"That's not what we heard from your brother." he said with an exceptionally happy smile that induced a crawling chill on Mokuba's spine. "But don't worry. We'll get to the bottom of whatever the problem is. Right now, the data we received is being use to determine if there's anything physically wrong with you. If it turns out that you're completely healthy, then we'll do some tests on your mentality.."

"Don't I have a say in any of this?"

"Only when we're asking questions. Anyway, while the others are working on that information, there's one other thing you need to do for a test we'll perform later." he said, pulling his hand out of his pocket, which held a tiny bottle with a powdery liquid inside.

Mokuba blinked. "What's that?"

"Just some medicine I need you to take a small dose of. It won't taste good, but its important." He approached the bed, twisting the bottle open.

"What do I need to take medicine for? There's nothing wrong with me." he said, doing nothing to hide his suspicious stare at the doctor.

"It'll come in handy later. Trust me, Mokuba. My only concern is your health."

Bastanchury took one of the small, flimsy paper cups from the cooler, and poured a small amount of the liquid into it, holding it out for Mokuba to take..which he did take, though obviously with some reluctance. He stared at the chalky fluid for a few moments before doing anything else.

"You're in good hands. I won't allow anything to happen to you." the doctor said simply.

Mokuba raised the cup to his lips..then pulled his head back, swigging the foul-tasting medicine. He coughed several times after it had been worked down his throat.

"Very good, very good." Bastanchury said, taking the cup from him..but rather than throwing it away, he crumpled it up and pushed it down into his pocket.

"By the way, when do I get to eat something? I haven't had dinner." Mokuba asked in a slightly annoyed tone.

"It's convenient you hadn't eaten anything in a while, actually. Some of the tests we did only work when you haven't eaten for a length of hours." the doctor's focus turned to a clock on the wall, watching it expectantly.

"..So, when do I get to eat?"

"Soon, soon. When we start getting results, we'll provide you with something to fill you up."

Mokuba's attention turned to the clock as well, with Bastanchury's stare being as intent as it was, it made him compelled to look. But then he felt a sudden queasiness in his stomach.

"Blegh.."

"Oh?" the doctor's attention whipped back to the boy, whom was now leaning forward. "Everything okay?"

"I feel sick.."

"Ah, don't worry, that's normal." he nodded almost proudly.

"It's normal from the medicine?"

"Yes, it's very normal. It will pass."

Mokuba didn't say anything further to that, waiting for the feeling to pass, as Bastanchury claimed it would. Several minutes of waiting, and the queasiness still persisted.

"How long does it last for?" he asked to the doctor, whom kept standing around.

"Not much longer."

There now was a spinning sort of sensation, with a drowsiness following shortly after.

"I feel dizzy..I really feel sick.."

"It's all normal." he stated in an uncomfortably merry fashion.

The young Kaiba's eyes moved up to see the doctor again..and to his dismay, the man was grinning.

"..Why are you smiling?"

"I'm just happy to see my patient being treated properly. I know exactly what I'm doing, so don't give it another thought."

Mokuba indeed didn't give it another thought..a darkness swept over his senses before he could. He fell back to the bed, unconscious.

Bastanchury waited a few more minutes before he turned, looking back up at the clock with a sly smile.

"That stuff works fast." he said to himself. He reached a hand into a different pocket of his coat, taking out a cellphone of a simpler sort. After a number had been dialed, he raised the phone to his ear.

"Hello?" a voice soon spoke.

"Hey, Jerry, it's me." Bastanchury said into the device.

"Oh, hey brother. What's going on?"

"Remember that medicine you gave me a few weeks ago? I finally found someone to try it on."

"You did? Who?"

"Kaiba Mokuba." he said with a slight snicker.

"What? Really? He's at your hospital?"

"Yes he is, and you know what that means. We've finally hit the opportunity we've been waiting for."

"Haha! That's great! You think we'll get a lot of funding out of him for it?"

"Of course. We're talking about Kaiba Seto here. You know how much he cares about his little brother's safety. As long as I can keep Mokuba in a state of illness without it being linked to anything I'm doing, he'll be sure to keep dumping money into the hospital's lap. And I know I can get away with it long enough to put some of that money aside for us."

Since Bastanchury had his back facing the bed, he didn't notice Mokuba's form suddenly rising up.

"Sounds like a plan, brother. They won't detect that stuff in his system, will they?"

"As long as I give him the doses after the checkups, no one will find enough traces of it to link it to anything."

The boy's feet touched down on the cool floor. He walked lightly enough for his footsteps to go unheard as he reached the chair that still had his clothes bundled upon it, and he grabbed the handkerchief from the pile. Then he started stalking towards the doctor.

"And you won't let the boy say anything about it, will you?"

"That will be easy. He's here because of supposed odd behavior, I can just say he's acting crazy."

It was then that Bastanchury felt something reaching into his pocket. He turned his head down, only to be greeted by Mokuba's face..pale as a ghost, with a dead-looking glare. The doctor fell backwards with arms flailing, the cellphone crashing to the smooth tiles.

"AUGH!"

Mokuba stood, now holding an object in his hand, and immediately whipped around and ran to the window. Before the doctor was able to get his bearings back, the preteen had opened the window up wide, and crouched onto the exposed sill like a panther.

"Y—you! Stop!" Bastanchury called out frantically.

No heed was given to the words. Just as the doctor got back onto his feet, Mokuba thrusted forward with his legs, leaping out the window. The man's mouth gaped in utter horror. He sprinted to the window, shoving himself from the waistline up out into the breezing cold of the night.

He first looked down to the pavement directly below, expecting to see a mess. When he saw nothing there, he looked all around the nearby street until he spotted Mokuba's position. The little Kaiba was hanging from a curved streetlight by the handkerchief he was currently holding with both hands..having used its arch to hook onto and break his fall. And from there, the doctor watched as he let the handkerchief go with one hand, dropping the rest of the way to the sidewalk. He then got back up..and after looking both ways, ran across the street, into the sheltered darkness provided by the surrounding buildings.

Bastanchury was again dumbfounded into not doing anything at first, but he quickly turned, running out of the room.

* * *

Seto had just finished eating dinner at his estate, by his lonesome self. It certainly wasn't the same without Mokuba around. He stood up, leaving the room for the maids to clean. As he walked down the hallway, heading for his office, his cellphone rang in his coat's pocket. He unenthusiastically stopped walking to reach inside and open the thing up, giving a dull answer. 

"This is Kaiba."

He listened to what the person on the other end had to say. His eyes snapped wide open.

"He WHAT?!"


	9. Chapter 9

**Resurfaced**

**Chapter 9**

While the virtual technologies of KaibaCorp were something phenomenal, simulated to the point that everything felt real and reacted to physics accordingly, it still did not achieve perfection. The feelings were there, but they were not as acute, not nearly what it is to actually be alive.

Due to this, and the many years spent in isolation, Noa had generally forgotten what it had been like to exist in reality, in flesh and blood. To touch and eat again through Mokuba was nothing short of thrilling. To really breathe air, to even feel a heart beating within, these were little subconscious things that had been taken for granted.

But now, in the cold of the night, hiding in dusky alleyways, Noa was being reacquainted with feelings that were much less pleasant. He was wearing only the medical gown, which did nothing to retain warmth, causing the cold air to gradually sap away the warmth he did still have. His feet were bare, subjected to walking on pavements that bore gravel, trash, and slimy things that he rathered to not guess the identity of. And then there was pain, felt mostly in his feet and butt. Dropping from the streetlamp as he had, had prevented him from becoming a splat on the ground, but it was distance enough to feel the effects of impact from landing at a sit.

All these things accompanied by the prevailing effect of the medicine made him wish that, for the moment, he could be back in the painless comfort of the virtual world. The environment there was his to manipulate and command without suffering...but this was a thought that was quickly cast away as he staggered through the shadows.

_Suffering is part of being alive.._ he thought grimly.

At first, Noa's escape had been a nimble one, swift on his feet in trying to put as much distance between himself and the hospital by running behind buildings and through alleyways, keeping himself out of obvious view. But the further he went, the more exhausted he became, accelerated by the medicine's potency. Moving around involved more effort, grinding him down to the point his movements were sluggish.

He came to a stop in no particular alleyway, leaning against the wall of whatever building he now stood near, out of breath and heaving for air. The dulled blue-gray eyes closed as he paused to think the situation over.

_That quack of a doctor tried to use Mokuba for his own gain..I can't let him or anyone from that hospital get him back. Seto thinks he's crazy...as soon as he finds out we escaped, he'll probably search out for him with all the resources he has..but Mokuba's mind is unconscious, and until I get all my memories back, there's no way I can explain this to anyone without him...and I have no idea where I am.._

The eyes opened back up in a tired glare.

_I have no where to go, no one to turn to, and until this body recovers from whatever that medicine did, I won't be able to get much farther without endangering it.._

A frown spread across Mokuba's face, expressing Noa's frustration.

_It's impossible..but I HAVE to get somewhere safe, somehow...Mokuba's been protecting me all this time, and now I need to do the same for him..._

Luckily for Noa, he was in the right place at the right time for a miracle. The sound of voices passing by the sidewalk outside of the alley suddenly fell on his ears. Familiar voices.

"Man, that was a good movie. Those sound effects were somethin' else!"

"The effects were good, but I think it was kinda overkill on the violence."

"Aw, come on Yug, a little violence never hurt anyone."

Noa turned towards the light that spread from the alley's opening, just in time to see two male teens walking past. A tall one wearing a jacket, jeans, sneakers..and bearing a mop of blond, poofy hair on his head. The other was nearly half his size with insane red-trimmed black hair that reached for the sky in a vaguely star shape, and stark yellow bangs that reached over his face like broken spider's legs. Noa didn't take account of what he was wearing, it was too difficult to look at anything other than his hair.

_Those guys..they were in the virtual world with Seto and..Mokuba said..his name was.._

"..Yugi!" he shouted.

The two stopped. Joey looked back casually with his hands hidden in the jeans' pockets while Yugi appeared more surprised.

"Is that..?"

"Come over here, please..." Noa's words dragged out, making him realize that his exhaustion was affecting even his speech.

The two walked into the alley. "Mokuba? Is that you?" Yugi asked. The darkness didn't allow either of the teens to see him properly, but they did recognize the voice as being that of the younger Kaiba brother.

"..Yes, it's me. I really need some help right now.."

"What's wrong?"

"What's up?" chimed Joey.

"..I was sent to the hospital for a condition that I don't have..the doctor there drugged me with some weird medicine..he wanted to keep me sick to get money out of Seto.."

"What?!" a surprised Yugi exclaimed.

"Your doctor is crooked?" Joey asked.

"..Crooked, or a quack..but I had to escape that place..and that's what I did... I've been running around aimlessly, I got lost.."

"What can we do to help, Mokuba?"

"You—Yugi.." Noa paused a moment, slightly thrown off being called by name that wasn't his. "..I need to get somewhere safe..somewhere I can hide out for a while..until I can recover from what that doctor did to M..me. They'll probably try to find me and take me back there..I can't let that happen until Seto knows what's going on.."

"You can stay at my place, then." Yugi stated with an affirming nod. "We'll do whatever we can to accommodate you."

"Thanks..let's go right now, I don't know how long it will take for them to contact Seto.."

"Of course."

With that said, Noa stepped out into the light provided by the surrounding buildings and streetlights. The two teens were shocked to see just how awful that whom they thought was Mokuba looked. His eyes were tired and vapid, his skin chalky in color, feet filthy, and his movements strained.

"Man, you look terrible." Joey bluntly stated.

Yugi moved forward to put his hand on Mokuba's shoulder, as a means to assist, and became furtherly astounded at how cold he felt to the touch.

"You're freezing!"

"..I know.." Noa said bitterly, annoyed with the amount of attention they were giving to his obvious condition.

Joey then stepped forward as well, removing his jacket in the process.

"You really did escape from a hospital in a hurry, huh? Didn't have time to get some clothes on you? I ain't surprised you're chilled."

The jacket was draped around his comparatively small form, reaching down to his thighs. The warmth of Joey's body heat was imbued in the material, which gave Noa a wave of relief in his distress.

"You need some shoes, too." Yugi said, pulling off his own shoes, leaving himself with just socks. He then knelt down before Mokuba, guiding one foot at a time into his shoes.

"Thanks.."

"It's no problem. Let's get you to my home, now."

The two of them stood at his sides, one at the left, the other at the right. Yugi kept his hands on Mokuba's shoulders while Joey was simply keeping an eye out as they continued down the sidewalk.

Noa's stare fell down to the shoes that had been placed on his feet. The simple comfort of having a cushion for one's heels and toes over the bare ground was yet another thing taken for granted. He tugged the jacket more tightly around himself as his thoughts started to wander.

_These guys..the Big 5 fought them for their bodies. I didn't really care about them..but they're helping me out so much because they think I'm Mokuba.. ... Is this what it's like to have friends? _

His eyes shut themselves.

_Mokuba is lucky..to have people like this...they're not being paid to help..they genuinely want to make sure he's okay..._

It may have been due to the warmth and comfort, and the sense of safety he felt..or it may have been the general tiredness and effect of the medicine..but whatever the case was, Noa suddenly blacked out.

* * *

A limo pulled up to the front of the hospital and screeched to a halt. No one came out of the passenger seats, only the driver's side, and it was Seto himself. The news had been so urgent for him, that he didn't want to rely on the chauffeur's ability to get him there quickly. Stepping out, he slammed the car door shut hard enough for the entire vehicle to rock. 

From there, he stormed towards the front doors, the concrete below silently quaking under his shoes as he walked. Inside, Dr. Bastanchury waited near the reception desk, wholly not looking forward to having to speak with Kaiba under these circumstances. His fingertips tapped in a nervous gesture against desk while the other remained in his coat pocket..and soon, the doors opened up to the wake of certain doom, in the form of a brown-haired young adult.

Bastanchury gritted his teeth behind his thinly pressed lips. Seto's glare was so fierce and serious, a terrible wrath seemed imminent. Regardless of these things however, the doctor maintained his composure.

Seto walked until he stood infront of Bastanchury, putting himself in the position of looking down upon the man. Despite the age differences, he still towered over him by a good half-foot.

"We'll speak in private. Now." he commanded, leaving no room for disagreement.

"Yes..of course. Right this way.." Bastanchury responded, and proceeded to lead him to the closest empty room, which was an unoccupied patient's room. Seto walked in first, with Bastanchury holding the door open for him, and then walking in himself. The very moment the door clicked shut, Kaiba grabbed the man by his coat collar and brought him closer to eye-level.

"Gh!"

"What the _hell_ happened to my little brother?"

"Mr. Kaiba, there's no need for roughhousing!" Bastanchury said as his feet dangled a few inches over the floor. "I'll explain everything! I've nothing to hide!"

Seto allowed the doctor to have his feet back on the ground, but he didn't remove his hands from him.

"You'd better explain every detail, or I'll do far worse than fire you!"

"I'm just as flustered by it as you are, sir. But it occurred after we had gone through testing him. He was taken to his room, and I went in there just to have a chat with him, to put him at ease over his stay. After a certain point..he went ballistic. It came completely out of the blue. I did nothing to agitate him, he just jumped at me like a wild animal!"

Seto's pupils shrunk in shock at hearing this.

"He knocked me down, and then he opened up the window and jumped out of it. I didn't get to see how he broke his fall, but by the time I got to the window, he was running across the street like a lunatic. I was appalled!"

Seto let go of the man's coat, which the doctor was quick to readjusted at his doing so.

"Mokuba attacked you?"

"Yes. I'm lucky, and he's lucky too, to have survived that fall." he said with a nod, now speaking with regained confidence. "Mr. Kaiba, I want to do everything in my power to help that boy out. He's clearly suffering from some kind of mental condition, and I can't stand the thought that I allowed him to leave this place in such a state of mind. I want him to be found and brought back here immediately."

"There's nothing physically wrong with him?"

"Seems that way. We haven't gotten all the results back yet, but from what we've gotten so far, he's in perfect health. As well, I've had years of practice in this sort of thing, I can see the symptoms of a suffering mind in that boy."

"Nothing has caused it?"

"Until we get all the results back, I can't say for certain. It's entirely possible that he's gone through some traumatic events in his life..and without proper healing, reached a boiling point that has caused him to snap. But I would need to do more extensive studies on him to make a proper diagnosis. The means may be a little expensive.."

"The expenses aren't an issue."

"I'm glad, quite glad." the doctor said, hiding smiling eyes behind his lens. "As I've said, I want to do everything I can to cure him."

"You'll find out what's wrong, and you'll cure him." Seto then said with a chilling glare. "Because if you don't..I'll put you, your family, and the next generation of your family in the streets."

Bastanchury maintained a firm confidence despite the threats. "I will not fail in my goals here."

"Good. I'm going to go alert the authorities."

"As I said, make sure they bring him directly back here the moment he's found. He's dangerous in his current state."

Kaiba said nothing further, helping himself to opening the door and exiting the room.

Bastanchury followed suit, exiting as well, and watching the young man leave the hospital. After the front doors had shut, the doctor expelled a suppressed sigh of relief.

* * *

After a dreamless rest that felt rather short, Noa came to. The first thing he did after opening Mokuba's eyes was take account of his surroundings. He was quick to assess that he was in someone's room, and that he himself was in a bed. A cozy one, no less. 

Turning his head slightly against the pillow behind it, he looked around to see a quaint furnishment of this room, and a window set into the ceiling, which the light of the moon came through in rays. He realized there was no one else around.

Noa could only assume that he was in Yugi's home, but assumptions weren't good enough on his troubled thoughts. He got out of the bed, and headed for the door..and on the way, noticing that the jacket and shoes had been removed from him, yet still wearing the medical gown, and the handkerchief he had was missing.

He came to a stop at the door, one hand held on the knob as he wondered with worry. The item he'd taken from the doctor was wrapped up in it, and he knew it'd be important to explain his case.

_I didn't drop it, did I?_

He shook his head, concluding that if he did lose it, then there was nothing he could do about that. It could've been anywhere, and now wasn't a good time to go back out into the streets to scour for it.

_I have to get Mokuba and myself safe.._

With that thought in mind, he proceeded to open the door, which exited into a hallway. One end dipped downward, while the other kept going straight. He heard the murmuring of voices from the straight end, so he headed that way, cautiously at first.

Peeking into the room from the opening of the hallway, he saw what resembled a living room, or perhaps a family room. Among other things, there was a couch with a few ottomans, a small table, and a TV set. A woman with burgundy hair was sitting on the couch, watching some program on the television. And, as if by some intuition, she turned to notice not-Mokuba standing there.

"Oh!" she exclaimed, quickly getting out of her seat. "You're awake?"

"..Yeah." Noa responded, keeping a hand to the wall. "Who are you?"

"I'm Yugi's mother." she said with a pleasant smile. "He's told me about you before."

"He has?"

"Yes." she nodded. "He tells me a lot about his friends. He's told me that you've helped eachother out when he was playing his card game tournaments, and you're the little brother of the CEO of KaibaCorp."

"Oh..yeah..that's right."

"It must be exciting, to be related to someone like that. You must do lots of interesting things."

"Yeah..it's interesting.."

"Oh.." she interrupted herself. "I shouldn't be asking about that right now. How are you feeling?"

"Um..I'm kinda sore in some places, but I feel better."

"I'm glad. You look a lot better than you did when Yugi and his other friend brought you here."

He blinked. "..About that..I don't remember being brought here.."

"Well, you were asleep when Yugi and Joey arrived, so we put you to bed to let you rest."

"How long ago was that?"

"It was about.." She turned back to look at a clock on the wall with a finger to her chin. "..an hour ago, now."

"An hour? It didn't feel like I slept that long.."

She turned back to face him, "You looked tired at the time, to say the least. But now that you're awake, is there anything I can get for you? Were you hungry, or thirsty?"

Noa looked downward for a moment. "..Actually, now that you mention it..I don't think I've eaten anything for a while."

"I see." the maternal one said with a brighter smile. "We've eaten dinner already, while you were napping. I had set aside a serving for you just incase. I put it away, but I can go reheat it now for you."

"..Th..thank you." Noa stuttered, unsure of how to react to the situation.

"It's no trouble, if that's what you're worried about." she said with a wave of her hand. "You can wait here, I'll bring it to you when its nice and warm again."

"Uh..kay."

With that, Yugi's mother walked out of the room, into where Noa assumed the kitchen to be. He looked about the room again before planting himself to a sit on the couch. He wasn't too interested in the program showing on the television, so he idled by pinching the flimsy paper that made up the gown tied onto himself. It hadn't been until now that he was starting to feel embarrassed at having to be seen wearing this poor excuse of an outfit, which without, he'd be completely naked.

Just then, there was the sound of a door opening and shutting. Attention drawn, Noa aimed Mokuba's eyes towards the source. Yugi stepped into the room, alone, and holding an ice cream cone in his hand.

"You're up?" the impossibly-haired teen asked.

Noa resisted answering rudely. "Seems so."

Yugi just smiled, which made Noa wonder why everyone here acted so happy.

"If I'd known you'd be awake now, I would've gotten you some ice cream, too."

"Um..that's okay. Your mom said she was going to give me something to eat just now."

"Oh, yeah. She put some aside for you."

"Yeah, she explained that already."

"Ah..sorry." Yugi helped himself to a seat on the couch, next to not-Mokuba. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm better.." Noa found his eyes wandering to the ice cream. "I don't feel great, but I'm better.."

"That's good. Joey and I were worried after you fainted."

"I fainted?" his eyes raised back up to meet with Yugi's.

"Yeah. Not long after we started heading home, you just dropped out cold. I guess you already know that we put you to bed once we got here."

Noa simply nodded.

"Joey went back home, and then we had dinner. I went out to get some ice cream for myself. I figured you'd be sleeping for the rest of the night."

"I'll probably sleep after eating something..I think I woke up because I'm hungry."

"Oh, I see." Yugi smiled again. "Maybe after a good meal and some more rest, you'll be as good as new."

"I hope so.." Noa turned to just look forward.

Yugi began licking his ice cream, and spoke between licks. "So, what are you going to do, Mokuba? And is there anything I can do to help?"

"I..haven't thought that far ahead. But you're helping me out a lot as is. I haven't had a chance to really think though what my next move will be."

"It's been rough for you, huh?"

"More than you'd think.."

That's when the TV suddenly stopped its program as some local news reporter appeared on the screen. It sufficiently grabbed the attention of the two.

"We interrupt this program to bring you a special announcement; The CEO of KaibaCorp, Kaiba Seto, has stated that his younger brother is missing. The Domino city police department has been alerted and are searching for any clues as to the whereabouts of Kaiba Mokuba."

As the newsman continued, an image of a cheerful Mokuba was brought up, looking to have been taking during the KC Grand Prix.

"It was reported that he ran away while visiting the KaibaCorp hospital. Exact details about his disappearance have not been disclosed, but if any citizens have seen him, Kaiba requests that the police be notified immediately."

The screen cut to Kaiba himself now, looking to have been prerecorded infront of an nondescript background.

"If anyone can help me find my little brother Mokuba and ensure his safe return, you'll have my absolute gratitude, and I'll see to it that everyone involved will be properly rewarded."

The screen cut back to the newsman.

"If any of you viewers have any leads regarding the whereabouts of Kaiba Mokuba, or know where he is, please contact the police and give them as many details as you can. You can call them at the following number.."

Noa dropped Mokuba's forehead into his palms. "#!$&."

* * *

The rest of the evening was spent on idle chatter that held no real meaning to Noa aside from passing the time while he waited to eat, and then eating in a fashion so ravenous, his stomach ached from having it all at once. He waited the unpleasant feeling out, and then headed back to Yugi's room. 

_The whole city is going to be keeping an eye out for Mokuba now.._ he mulled bitterly.

Noa entered the room, which was dimly lit by the light of the moon. He went straight for the bed, but before he had a chance to get into it, he realized from seeing spiky hair out of the corner of his eyes that Yugi had followed him. He tiredly turned to face the short teen.

"I brought you some pajamas." Yugi said before Noa had a chance to get a word out. Indeed, he was holding a set of long-sleeve nightwear, carefully folded into a tidy flat square. "They're mine, so they might not fit right, but I'm sure it'll be better than what you're wearing now."

After a blink, Noa took the outfit. "You're extremely hospitable."

"Of course. You're one of my friends."

"..Yeah..thanks. I'm really tired.."

"Ah, okay. I'll let you rest, then. Have a good night!"

"Yeah..you too."

Yugi gave a short wave, and then exited the room, shutting the door behind himself. Noa just stared at the door for a moment before turning, and setting the clothes down on the bed.

_How would he treat me if he knew I wasn't Mokuba?_

Noa shut Mokuba's eyes and shook his head at the thought. He had more important things to worry about, such as what he was going to do tomorrow. He didn't have a plan, and he knew he'd need to think of one soon.

He opened the blue-gray eyes back up, and unfolded the outfit, noticing a pair of boxers had also been included.

_He wants me to wear his underwear too..?_

The idea induced a cringe, but under the circumstances, Yugi probably just wanted to make sure he had all he'd need. As well, he was eager to get out of the medical gown and into some real clothes. He was swift to get dressed, leaving the gown on the floor, and getting himself into the bed. With the sheets up to his chin, a cozy sigh hissed through his nose as those eyes shut once again.

The moon continued to cross along the night sky.


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's note: ** Uhh..yeah. It's been about five or six months now, and I'm really sorry to anyone that's been eagerly awaiting the next chapter to this. I know there's at least one of you. I don't really have an excuse for why this chapter took me so long, I got rigorously addicted to a certain mmorpg, and only recently quit so that I could have my life back. I'll try my best to finish these chapters in a more timely fashion this time.

**Resurfaced**

**Chapter 10**

A violet sky. A face overlooking all.

"I wanna see you, father! I have always been alone.."

"You're useless to me now."

A cave. A console. Figures standing around, watching.

"Father has locked the program..we can't create an entry here..why not just give up? What if you just stay here as father has said? It's not bad to be here if you're used to it.."

Laughter...a sensation of shaking.

"Noa! How can you talk like that? Gozaburo has abandoned you!"

"..It hurts, Mokuba..."

An arcade. A game being played. A hand reaching out.

"If you swear..not to have any bad ideas, I may help you ask for a favor. I can ask my brother to give you a new body."

The hand withdrew.

...

"Well, we are brothers!"

_Brothers...we are brothers... Let it be at an end..we are already dead, father... Goodbye, Mokuba..._

* * *

Noa woke up to a start, and immediately sat up. Rays of the early morning sunlight were breaking through the window, but he didn't notice. Mokuba's hands moved to cling to his face as his whole body shuddered, quivered, and then bowed down further. Tears soon forced themselves out of his eyes, and crying gasps escaped from his mouth. Within a very short time, he was sobbing.

The last few memories had come back to him, as vivid and painful as gouging claws from within. All the effort he'd put forth to make his father happy was for nothing. He'd betrayed the trust of Mokuba, the one person that had showed him any kindness, and the one person that believed in him and accepted him even after all he'd done. And in the end, he had gotten everyone out of the virtual world just before it was destroyed..everyone except himself and his father..that they would be destroyed together.

All of these very emotional things occurred in such a short time, that having his memories of them dumped into his lap now made Noa breakdown. But at the same time, it was comforting. It had been many, many years since he was last able to cry.

He didn't know how long he'd been at it for, but at a certain point, his blubbering was heard though the walls, and there was then a knock at the door.

"Mokuba?" a voice he recognized to belong to Yugi's mother called. "Are you okay?"

Noa was weeping too much to be capable of responding, so he said nothing. Thus, the woman opened the door, quite surprised to see not-Mokuba in such a state. She dashed over to the bed, wearing just a nightrobe.

"What's wrong? What happened?" she quickly asked. But again, his sobs kept him too choked up to speak.

She went ahead and knelt down by the bed, reaching her arms out..hesitantly at first, but then the arms came together for a loose hug on the preteen. It felt a bit awkward to be comforting a crying child that wasn't her own, but she did so just the same, rubbing a hand gently along the boy's back.

At the ease of her touch, Noa gradually calmed down. The room became silent as his weeping winded down to convulsed sniffles, and then to a tired breathing. She continued to hold him until he finally spoke.

"..It..it was..a nightmare..."

Yugi's mother found it odd that a bad dream could get this kind of reaction from someone, but she decided it would probably be best not to ask about it.

"Are you going to be okay?" she therefore asked instead. His head nodded in her arms.

"Yeah..I'm okay.." Noa nudged himself backwards, and Yugi's mom responded by releasing him. He then brought a hand up to wipe his tear-dried eyes. "I'm sorry if I woke you up.."

"Don't worry about it." she said with a sympathetic smile before standing back up. The scenario reminded her a little of the times when Yugi used to cry. "Is there anything you need?"

The boy shook his head, "No, I'll be fine."

"Well, whenever you need something, let me know." she said as she turned, walking back to the door, placing a hand on the rim before exiting.

"I will."

The door closed. Noa dropped back into the pillow. He sighed heavily.

_Mokuba..why haven't you woken up? Where did you go?_

There was no answer.

Noa fell back into a restless, dreamless sleep.

* * *

By the time Noa woke up, it was closer to noon than morning. He tiredly pulled Mokuba's body to a slumped sit up. Despite the amount of time he spent sleeping, he felt like he'd hardly gotten any rest. A hand raised to rub his eyes, first the left, then the right..and from there, he dragged himself out of the bed, now standing barefoot on the mildly cool flooring. He stood there for a few minutes, his mind drawing a blank as he stared at the door of the room. Then blinking, he remembered his whereabouts, and the situation.

"..Seto. Need to find Seto." he concluded aloud. The statement was followed by a mild frown of sorts. He wasn't pleased by the idea that the only person who could turn everything around had to be Seto. It felt like a necessary evil..yet, it was one he brought about himself.

_If only I hadn't..._

Mokuba's head shook.

_I can't let myself get distracted. Dwelling on that is just going to hold me back from making everything right again. That's the only thing that matters now._

This thought was followed by a nod, and he went straight for the door. A click and a pull, and it was open. Noa walked out into the hallway..first looking to the left, then to the right. The sound of footsteps came from the left, and he thus headed in that direction, into the welcoming room with the TV. He only stood there for a moment before he was spotted by Yugi's mother, whom walked in from the kitchen, wielding a spray bottle of some manner of cleaning solution.

"Mokuba? Good morning!" she said as her feet met with the carpet.

Noa turned, greeting her with a wary wave. "Good morning, ma'am."

"Are you feeling better today? You look better." she asked with a slight concern.

"I feel better, I just.." his fingertips lifted to briefly rest on his forehead. "..I didn't sleep too well."

"Is anything the matter?" Yugi's mom figured it had everything to do with his nightmare, or whatever had caused him to cry in the early morning. She didn't entirely believe him, but she also knew there was likely a good reason behind it.

He give a bit of a sigh as his hand fell back down. "Well..ma'am, I'm in a bit of a situation, and I don't really know what to do about it."

"Oh?" her head tilted.

Noa directed Mokuba's eyes to look off to the side before continuing, "Is Yugi here?"

"No, he went to school."

"School..a public school?" He looked up a bit as he asked, as having been home-schooled his entire living life.

"Yes, him and all his friends. You don't go to a public school?"

"No..uh..I mean..I don't.." he quickly shook his head. "..That's not really important. Are we here alone?"

"Up here, we are. Sugoroku is below in the shop."

"..Who?"

"I think you've met him before, Yugi's grandfather?"

"Uh..probably..anyways, the problem..maybe you saw on the news that Seto..my brother..is looking for me?" he asked in an increasingly timid manner.

"Oh.." she blinked. "I hadn't watched the news yet. I've been tidying up."

"Ah.." he sighed in a slight of relief. "Well, my brother is looking for me, and I need to find him without anyone else finding me first."

Mrs. Mutou pressed the nozzle of the spray bottle to her jaw as her eyes climbed to the ceiling in thought. "Hm..couldn't you just call him to pick you up, here? Or I could drop you off.."

"No, no.." not-Mokuba begged. "The situation..is really precarious. Seto has the police looking for me, even. If they find me before he does, they'll probably just take me back to the hospital.."

"Hospital?" she said with a bit of alarm.

"The hospital.." he started with a tired glare and a clench of Mokuba's fists. "Seto took me there because he thought there was something wrong with me, but..that wasn't the case. That doctor is a quack. He tried to make me sick with some strange medicine to keep me there. I overheard him saying he just wanted to use me to get money out of my brother!"

Yugi's mother blinked with obvious shock.

"If the police find me first.." Noa continued, looking up with renewed determination. "..they'll just take me back there, and I'll be at the mercy of that fraud. I can't let that happen. If we call Seto to come here, they'll probably be with him, and if you take me there, you'll get in trouble for having had me."

Mrs. Mutou set the bottle down on the nearest counter, and reapproached not-Mokuba in a worried manner, "I had no idea this was so serious... What can I do to help you, then?"

"Well.." Mokuba's eyes shut for a moment in thought, and then reopened. "I need to find Seto before anyone else can find me, as I said. I need to prove to him what the doctor wanted to do to me. From there, he'll undoubtedly take care of the rest. I had a handkerchief with some evidence in it, but..I don't know what happened to it."

"A handkerchief? A light blue one?" she asked with another tilt of her cranium.

"Yes!" he nearly shouted, eyes wide. "Have you seen it?"

"Yugi brought that here too when he brought you..I had set it down on a table in the other room, I'd forgotten all about it."

"Can you show me, ma'am? It has the only proof I've got!"

"Of course." she said, then quickly walking back into the room with the TV, as Noa followed practically at her heels. From there, she turned to walk left for the hallway, into where it sloped down to the shop's door. Opening that door revealed a small table just outside of it, where a few boxes of sealed carded were awaiting shelf-life. Also on this table, a wadded handkerchief sat, minding its own business. Mrs. Mutou plucked it up and shut the door, turning to drop it into a pair of eager hands.

Noa ran back into the TV room, and in the better lighting, pulled the cloth open. This was followed by a huge sigh of relief as he saw the object in question was indeed still there and safe. Yugi's mom walked into the room in time for not-Mokuba to turn to face her, and give a quick bow.

"Thank you so much, ma'am. You have no idea how important this is to me."

"You don't need to be so formal.." she responded with a bit of a bashful expression, waving her hand as if to fan the gesture away.

"Regardless, this is what's going to make my case." he said, whipping himself back up to a straight stand. "Otherwise, they might not believe me. Now I just need to figure out how to find him myself.."

The aloud thought was suddenly interrupted by a muffled grouwlling sound.

"Maybe you should have something to eat, first." Mrs. Mutou humbly noted.

Noa nodded, flustered.

* * *

"Please, Mr. Kaiba. You can't cancel this meeting."

Seto's agitated fist slammed down on his desk hard enough for his nearby laptop and coffee mug to quiver.

"My brother is still missing! I'm not doing anything until he's found!"

The elder Kaiba brother sat at his work desk in the office room of his estate. With a cellphone pressed to his ear, he spoke to the man on the other end in dire frustration. It hadn't been a full 24 hours that Mokuba had been missing for, but with every passing minute without any news of his wear-abouts, Kaiba felt himself getting a little more unhinged with worry. Knowing his brother escaped the hospital in a supposedly crazy state, yet, not a single person had reported seeing him since..it seemed like anything could have happened to him.

It was nothing short of sheer agony for Kaiba.

"Please, sir." the voice begged. "I understand you're going through a troubled time, but to ignore this meeting over the issue would cause irrevocable damage to KaibaCorp. You know it's incredibly important."

"It doesn't matter, we can reschedule it!"

"We can't ask anyone to reschedule anything on the day you're supposed to have the board meeting." the man responded exasperatedly. "We have important representatives from many countries that wish to have KaibaLands built! They've traveled far to meet with you! If you were to cancel this now, we'll leave a bad mark on them, and we might not get another chance to build the theme parks for them!"

"I'm not doing anything until Mokuba is found. I don't care what the result of a canceled meeting is! It's not more important than my brother's wellbeing!" Kaiba exclaimed with suppressed rage.

"Sir.." the man said softly, as though trying to clam the young adult down. "I understand entirely. I understand completely. Your brother means more to you than anything else, I know this. But you can't halt your responsibility to the company because of it. Time isn't going to stop for you. You've mentioned before that building KaibaLands all over the world has been not only your goal, but the goal of your little brother as well. Surely, you can let the authorities handle searching for him long enough to at least go through with this meeting? If you won't do it for the company, couldn't you at least do it for him?"

Seto huffed out an aggravated sigh. That was a point he could not ignore.

"..As soon as the meeting is over, I'm going into the streets to find my brother. I'll go through the meeting, but everything else is going to be rescheduled. Got it?"

"Certainly." the man said with a sigh of ease. "Remember, it starts in an hour."

"Shut up and get back to work." Kaiba said plainly, and jammed his thumb on the device to hang up. With the closed cell still in his clenched fingers, he brought his elbows to the desk and covered his face with with hands.

He sat like this for a while.

* * *

Noa had managed to eat breakfast without getting fully stuffed up, as he was too distracted with planning how to find Seto to allow himself to go overboard.

The body of the preteen stood up from the small kitchen table.

"Thank you very much, ma'am. That was absolutely delicious." he spoke as though answering to a teacher.

"It was no trouble." Yugi's mother said with a mildly embarrassed smile. She stood up from the other end of the table, and proceeded to take the plates and bowls away. Noa looked back for a moment before Mokuba's eyes widened in response to a realization.

"Ma'am?" he said, submitting his attention to Mrs. Mutou again.

"Yes?" she responded, having set the items down next to the kitchen sink.

"Do you have a small jar I can use? If everything turns out fine, I promise I'll reimburse you for it, and for helping me out."

"A jar? Any particular kind of jar?" she asked as she opened a small cupboard, searching with a finger.

"Something small, with a tight seal, and preferably opaque." he responded with a nod.

After a moment or two of skimming, she took out a small white jar with a screw-on top that was roughly the size of a salt shaker, and held it out for not-Mokuba to take..which he took happily.

"This is perfect! Thank you again, ma'am!"

"It's nothing, we've had that and haven't used it, I was planning on getting rid of it." she said with a pleasant smile. "You don't need to worry about replacing it."

"I gave you my word, and I'm going to keep it!" he stated with a rigorous nod.

"If you insist." she responded with a slight chuckle.

"Now..may I use your restroom?"

"Oh?" she blinked, and then pointed. "It's just back there, past that door in the living room."

"Thanks!" he said quickly, and swiftly moved out of the kitchen. He stopped by the TV room table to set down the handkerchief, with Mrs. Mutou watching from where she stood. She noticed he still held onto the jar as he dashed to the appropriate room and shut the door. After staring blankly for a moment or two, she turned to busy herself with rinsing off the dishes. She didn't want to know.

When Noa came back out, he first went back to the handkerchief, unfurling it to place the jar inside the cloth, and then wrapped it back up in a tight knot. From there, he went back to Yugi's mother, whom was keeping busy with the cleaning.

"Ma'am?"

"Yes?" she stopped to face him with another slightly embarrassed smile.

"If I could ask one more favor of you..I've been thinking, if I were disguised up, I could find Seto myself without anyone knowing who I am. Do you have anything to make me look different?"

At that, she stopped her work, placing a hand to her chin and gazed up to the ceiling. Then she looked back down, giving not-Mokuba a particularly hard stare, as if dissecting him with her eyes. Noa stood stiffly to this, and Mrs. Mutou started to circle around the boy with that analyzing peer. She circled once, then stopped..then circled again, and this time, stopped behind him as he continued to keep rigid and still. He felt her hands patting at Mokuba's pronged hair from behind..she squeezed a portion of it together between her fingers, and the other hand came to press to the back of his head. He was getting nervous at this point..but then she let go, and returned to his front, getting down to one knee before him with a mischievous glint in her eye.

"Mokuba..just how different would you like to look?" she asked, bearing a sly smile.

"U-uh.." Noa stuttered. "I'd...I'd like to look as different as I can. The more, the better."

"I know exactly what to do, then." she said, standing back up, and taking the pajama-clad Kaiba by the hand. Noa couldn't shake the feeling that he was going to regret this.


	11. Chapter 11

**Resurfaced**

**Chapter 11**

Dr. Bastanchury stood in his small, simply furnished office within the hospital, staring at the clock on the wall. His hand rested on the flat surface of his desk, the index finger tapping on it at every tick of the second.

_Someone should have found him by now.. _he thought bitterly._ He couldn't have gotten far, he should have passed out from the medicine and then someone should have found him._

Hidden behind the thick spectacles, a stern glare formed.

_If he's still running around, then he'll probably try to find his miserable, mullet-headed brother._

The doctor's other hand lifted to stroke his clean-shaven chin.

_And if that's the case..I shouldn't be too far away from him._

Another few minutes passed as he thought this over before he then nodded to himself affirmingly. With that, he stepped out of the office, and down the following hallway. He stepped calmly through the hospital, with other doctors, nurses, and patients passing or going, until he came to the receptionist's desk near the front door. The woman sitting there was busy with speaking to another patient, but Bastanchury made no hesitation to interrupt them by pressing his hand onto the desktop and leaning in.

"Excuse me." he said to the confused lady. "I'm going to be stepping out for the day. If any of my patients come in, tell them they need to see a different doctor, or reschedule, alright?"

She blinked a few times before answering, "Uh..certainly, doctor."

"Yes, thank you."

Now that the conversation was done, he simply strolled out of the building, and made his way to the staff parking lot from there. It wasn't until he reached the car that he stopped to pull a cellphone out of his pocket, dialing quickly, and pressing the phone to his ear. A few rings later, someone picked up.

"Hello, you've reached Kaiba Corporation, my name is Asa, how many I help you?"

"Yes." he started. "I am Dr. Bastanchury, I've been overseeing Kaiba Mokuba's stay at the hospital before he went missing. I was wondering where I might find Kaiba Seto."

"Dr. Bastanchury?"

"Yes."

"Hold while I check our records, please."

Bastanchury found his free hand moving to the roof of his car, tapping on it as he awaited a response.

"Okay." the person spoke, after a few minutes. "I have your name, and its been noted that if you have any information regarding Kaiba Mokuba, you're to contact Kaiba Seto directly. Do you need his number?"

"No, I just need to know what he's doing at this time. I may or may not go to speak with him personally on an unrelated issue."

"I believe he's currently resting in his home. But he will be having a meeting in approximately 45 minutes at the Kaiba Corporation tower."

"I see. Thank you, that's all I wanted to know."

"Certainly, sir. Have a good day."

"Likewise."

And he thus hung up, pushing the cell back into his coat pocket. He looked up and off into the distance, seeing the mentioned tower standing tall over the surrounding structures. It could be seen from pretty much anywhere in the city.

_Seems as good a place to start as any._ the doctor thought as he opened the car door and sat inside, shutting the door behind. The vehicle rummed, then purred, then pulled out, and drove into the busy streets, heading for KaibaCorp.

* * *

Mrs. Mutou held her hands together infront of her chest, beaming over a job she considered well done.

"Perfect!" she exclaimed. "Here, step infront of this mirror, tell me what you think."

Noa was slightly bothered by how much Yugi's mother had enjoyed the process that lead up to his complete disguise, but he became even more bothered by the disguise itself. It was one thing to look into a mirror and see someone completely different, but it was another matter entirely to see him dressed up in such a fashion.

In the mirror, Noa saw Mokuba with his bangs combed back, leaving his forehead exposed, and the rest of the hair woven into a tightly knit French braid that was tied at the end with a white bow-tie ribbon. Wearing over a simple shirt was a loosely fitting long-sleeved blouse that bore a floral pattern in lavenders and periwinkles, paired up with a sky blue skirt that reached down to his ankles. Upon his feet, there were plain white socks worn with low-heeled strap dress shoes, firmly buckled to fit his smaller size. His face held a pair of old glasses with thick cobalt blue frames that lacked prescriptions, as well as a peach sunhat on his head decorated with a single red ribbon wrapped around the crown.

Noa was mortified.

"Th-this...this is..." he stammered.

"You look so cute!" she nearly squealed. "You don't look like yourself at all!"

"...so...awkward..."

"Oh, don't be silly." Mrs. Mutou said as she got down to one knee and rested her hands on Mokuba's shoulders. "You're adorable. I bet even your brother won't know it's you!"

"That..that is what I wanted.." he said with a clearly diffident tone. "Looking..as different..as possible.."

"And besides, I think this is much better than trying to cut your hair, or bleach it to make it look different. This way, when you're done, you can just take off the ribbon and put your hair back in place! It's perfect." she said with another rosy smile.

"I..I guess it is.."

Noa stepped back away from the mirror and turned around, doing so carefully as he wasn't quite used to walking with low-heels. For being low, they were still high enough to make a difference from stepping in normal, flat shoes. He navigated over to the TV room's table where he'd left the bundled handkerchief, and he picked it up into Mokuba's hands.

"Well..I have everything I need..so I guess I'd better get going. The sooner I find Seto, the better."

"Okay." Yugi's mom said with a pleasant nod. Then her eyes lit up with a dawn of realization, "Actually, before you go, I have one more thing. Wait here."

Noa turned in time to see her already heading back down into the other room. When she returned, she held in her grasp a small purse of a beige color. It had a buckle and a zipper, frayed on the edges. A thin coat of dust was brushed away with a few swipes of her hand.

"I never use this one anymore. You can hold your stuff with this instead of having to carry it around like that."

"Oh, thanks." he said with a blink. "I didn't even think about that."

"It's no problem." she said with a wink, handing it over to the young Kaiba.

He pulled the buckle back and unzipped the opening, stuffing the bulky handkerchief inside. Once it was nice and snug, he zipped it back up, replaced the buckle, and slung the strap over his shoulder, leaving the right hand to rest over purse.

"I think I'm good to go now." Noa stated, starting to feel a little more confidence. "I can't thank you enough for your help, ma'am. I won't be forgetting this."

"This was fun." she merrily replied. "I hope everything works out well for you, though. Good luck finding your brother."

"Thanks. Some extra luck will be useful, I'm sure." he nodded.

"I'll show you out." she said as she started heading for the hallway, with not-Mokuba following shortly after. Down the path, to the door, and into the shop they went. Yugi's grandpa was sitting at the counter, sorting through some packs of cards. The place was quiet, as the school hours tended to be, and he thus certainly took notice of the two walking by.

"Oh?" he started. "Who's that there?"

Noa cringed, unwilling to turn around. Mrs. Mutou looked back as they continued.

"Sorry, but she's late for an appointment. We have to hurry!" she smiled.

"Eh?" was Sugoroku's confused response, but nothing else was said as they proceeded out the shop door.

The little bell rang to herald their entry to the sidewalk, and from there, Noa walked ahead of Mrs. Mutou.

"Thanks again, ma'am. Like I said before, I promise to repay your hospitality if everything turns out fine when all this is over."

"You don't have to, but I guess I won't stop you if you really want to." she said with a slight giggle, and then gave a wave goodbye. "Remember to try to sound like a girl, too!"

"Uh..yeah.." he nodded hesitantly, and then waved back. "Goodbye!"

Mrs. Mutou walked back into the shop while Noa walked forward along the concentrate, taking notice of his surroundings. Cars driving by on the street, scattered trees quietly wavering their leaves with gentle winds..the warmth of the sun, and the hiss of city life.

_It's so real.._ he thought, taking a deep breath though his nose to smell the varying scents. _The real city with real people..I've missed this._

It was then that a realization burst his contemplation like a bubble. He had no idea where to look for Seto. He didn't know where the mansion was, or the location of anything else.

_I'm just going to get lost all over again.._

A notion of panic started to prick at his senses, but then he looked around again. He recalled a certain fact, and pointed Mokuba's gray-blue eyes to the skies..to where the tallest buildings reached. A lashing of hope struck him as he spotted the KaibaCorp tower, the main building of Kaiba Corporation off in the distance.

_If Seto isn't there, then I can at least get an idea of where he'd be from the employees._

Noa marched off towards the tower.

* * *

Shortly before the sun reached its apex in the sky, a car pulled into KaibaCorp.'s visitor parking lot, and found itself an empty slot between two other vehicles. The car quieted itself, and Bastanchury stepped out, walking to the tower, barging right into the front doors. The doors closed, and the building seemed quiet.

About 15 minutes later, a limo pulled to the front of the building. Out stepped Seto, his white trenchcoat billowing with minimal wind, holding onto a large briefcase in his right hand. His other hand simply held a fist, and his face expressionless. He walked into the building, carrying a stoic air about himself. The doors closed as he passed through, and the limo drove away.

Roughly 10 minutes later, Noa was only a block away from the massive tower. He stopped a moment, dipping down to rest Mokuba's hands on his knees, huffing out of breath. The entire process of getting to this point required him to be crossing many streets, and to each one, he dashed across like a madman after receiving the crosswalks' green light. Since remembering that the death of his body was caused by a car, he wanted to keep off the streets as much as possible.

For the most part, it was an uneventful walk. People with bikes rode by, and people simply walking went by. He'd given them no attention, out of fear that they might recognize him as Mokuba, and out of general shyness and embarrassment for being dolled up. A few would greet him with a wave and a friendly hello, and to that, he would wave back distractedly. There was also a few police cars that had driven by, which he would keep his eyes straightforward on, not wanting to risk eye contact. He'd gone unnoticed thus far, and was quite glad for that fortune. The only real problem was crossing the streets, and the glasses Mrs. Mutou had given him. Being too big for his face, they kept sliding down his nose, and Noa found himself almost constantly adjusting them.

The young Kaiba now stood at the last street before the sidewalk would merge with the area around the tower. After pushing the button, he nervously waited for the crosswalk's light to turn green. This street seemed busier than the others he had passed, and that did nothing to put him at ease. He took in a deep, slow breath, trying to relax in the face of this nagging fear.

The passing vehicles slowed down to a stop, and the light turned, signifying the time to cross. Since there were more cars around, he wanted to avoid looking suspicious, thusly walking instead of running. Noa firmly and carefully made his steps across the street, eyes starting ahead.

_**SKREEE**_

His composure fell faster than than a bolt of lightning. The sound of tires screeching against the asphalt caused him to run for the other side in a blind terror. Within that instant, it was as though he were reliving the moment; standing, frozen with terror as a car came careening right at him, seeing nothing but the brightness of headlights and a flash of metal. The surge of adrenaline pushed him across and past the street, coming to a stop only from misstepping in the low-heeled shoes, which caused him to slam on the concentrate rather harshly. The glasses flew ahead, clacking as it bounced on the sidewalk.

At this flat stop, he turned to look back over at what had happened. On the other side of the street, a car was now honking at a dog that wandered off the walking path infront of it, and had sat itself on the spot, oblivious to its surroundings. Noa dipped back down, pressing Mokuba's cheek to the ground, taking deep breaths. The stress, rush, and fear had given him an instant headache, and he didn't care how odd it would look to anyone that a young girl was laying on the sidewalk. He wanted a few minutes to rest.

Luckily, no one was around too close to notice him, and after taking those moments to clam down, he pushed himself back up to a wobbly stand. The young Kaiba took a few steps forward to pick up the fallen glasses, and then placed them back on Mokuba's face. He felt weak and out of breath..but he pressed onward regardless.

_I'm almost there..I'm finally almost there.._

Being too disjointed by what just occurred to notice, he'd gotten a number of dirty scuff marks on the outfit from hitting the pavement, and the glasses were somewhat bent out of shape. The contents of the purse remained safe, being cushioned by the handkerchief within.

It was a short walk to the front doors from there, but it felt much longer, as he was still trying to shake off the headache and daze. But once he did reach the doors, he pushed it open and stepped inside, bring greeted with a brush of cool, conditioned air, and the murmuring of people further in. Now walking across carpeted floors, he traveled further in, looking around. The area was reaching into a much larger room with many cushy seats around for visitors and such to sit in, TVs set into the walls for viewing as they waited, and a very long receptionist's desk with several receptionists sitting behind their computers. A few were talking to other people, while the rest kept busy with whatever was on their screens.

With the chairs around looking so welcoming, he decided to first take another short rest. Plopping to a sit on a chair that had no immediate persons sitting nearby, Noa leaned back and rested Mokuba's head against the wall directly behind. The gray-blue eyes shut as he took quite breaths through the nose.

"We at KaibaCorp. pride ourselves on our biggest project; creating KaibaLands for the world over to enjoy."

Noa realized that the nearest TV must've been running an advert for the company. A slight frown showed on Mokuba's lips..the company originally made weapons, and his upbringing had trained him for just that. Now it was a gaming company. To have the business he was meant to rule over turned into a franchise for children...

"We have many locations in Japan and America, and plan on expanding to many other countries. KaibaLand offers all sorts of games and rides for both children and adults of all ages, catering for everyone have fun. And unlike any other amusement park, the President and Vice President of KaibaCorp. has made special arrangements for orphans to get in for free. It's done to make sure that even our disadvantaged children will be able to enjoy all that KaibaLand has to offer!"

Mokuba's eyes suddenly opened, expressing Noa's surprise.

_Orphans? Is that because they had been orphans?_

The boy sat up straight. He'd known that his father adopted Seto and Mokuba from an orphanage, but he didn't realize they'd wanted to do things like this.

_I've never known what a life like that is like..I've heard things about it, but.._

He blinked out of the thought as an idea came to him. He stood up, getting out of the chair, walking up to the receptionist's desk, moving to where one of the persons were not already talking to someone.

"Exc.." he started, and then quickly coughed, trying to speak with a higher pitch. "Excuse me.."

The woman sitting behind the counter leaned in, giving the little 'girl' a smile.

"Hello there. Are you looking for someone?"

"Actually..I am." he responded. "If it's at all possible..I would like to see Mr. Kaiba himself."

"The CEO?" the woman asked with a slight giggle. "You would need an appointment, dear. He's a very busy man."

"I know, but..I would really like to meet him in person, and give him my thanks.." he held up his purse at that. "You see, I came here from the local orphanage...I'm an orphan, and on behalf of the orphanage, I would like to give Mr. Kaiba a gift to express our gratitude for his wonderful amusement parks."

The receptionist blinked at that, and leaned in a bit to get a closer look at this 'girl'. She noticed that the clothes had dirty marks, seeming old, and the glasses bent out of shape slightly. She went back down to a sit on the chair, giving the little 'lady' a sympathetic smile.

"Shouldn't there be an adult with you?" she then said. "Why are you here by yourself?"

"Our matron wasn't feeling well today." he responded, as though he had this answer ready. "I didn't want to trouble her, or any of the others to come with me just because of that. Besides, I wanted to prove that I can handle something like this myself, so I can get more chances to do errands for them."

The woman smiled, "What a considerate child you are. What's your name?"

Noa blinked. He wasn't ready for that one.

"Mo.." he started, but caught himself. Using Mokuba's name would be a really bad idea, he realized within that instant, "N.." And he equally realized it was just as bad to use his own name, "..uh.."

"..Mona?" the woman pieced his syllables together.

"Yes!" he squeaked. "That's exactly right! Mona!"

The receptionist chuckled behind smiling lips, taking the exclamation as enthusiasm.

"Well, Mona, I'll see what I can do for you. But it's as I said, Mr. Kaiba is a very busy man, so you might not get a chance for some time."

"Will it be a very long time?"

"Well, let me take a look at his schedule..I'll bring it up on the computer here." she said, and proceeded to tap away at her keyboard. Noa lowered the purse and tapped his feet in anticipation.

"Hum.." she said after a minute or so. "That's strange..all of his appointments for today were canceled."

Noa looked up with hopeful eyes, "Does that mean I might get a chance to see him today?"

"Ah..it's certainly not that simple." she responded, her focus still on the monitor. "If Mr. Kaiba did that, then there's likely something else going on to take up the time that he had to set those appointments aside for. It probably has something to do with his missing little brother. Seems he's only still doing his important meeting today."

"Important meeting?"

"Oh, yes, it's very important." the woman looked back down at the 'girl' with a pleasant smile. "It's a board meeting he's having with lots of people. He's having it right now, actually."

"Right now? In this building?"

"Mmhm. If you'd like, I can see if we can intercept him when it's over. You might get a few minutes to speak with him if he doesn't have anything immediately pressing to do."

"A few minutes is all that I ask, ma'am." he said with an optimistic expression.

"In that case, I'll try to have someone get a hold of him after his meeting. That could be an hour or longer, I believe."

"I won't mind waiting."

"Okay." she said with yet another smile. "Come back in about an hour, and I can update you."

"Actually, ma'am, would it be okay if I could look around here? I've..never been here before." While this was a lie, it had merit. It'd been so long since Noa was last at the tower, it did feel like it completely changed.

"If you want to do that, you'll need to have someone with you. I can't let you wander around by yourself, I'm sure you understand."

"Yes, I understand." he nodded. "Could you arrange for someone show me around, then? I have plenty of time, and I want to tell my friends at the orphanage all about this place."

The receptionist gave another amused smile, "I'll see if anyone's available for that. You can sit in the waiting area, and I'll have someone come to you, okay?"

"Thank you so much, ma'am." he said with large eyes. "You have no idea how much I've wanted to see this place."

"It's a pleasure, Mona. Now, go ahead and sit down, and I'll have someone right with you."

"Thank you again!" he exclaimed joyfully, and then went back to the same chair he'd been sitting in earlier. Resuming a rest on the cushioned seat, he kept an eye on the receptionist, keeping himself in good posture.

Watching, she picked up a phone and spoke into it. A few minutes of talking amid the murmur of the other people around didn't allow him to hear what was being said, but the woman was smiling, so he figured that to be a good sign. She set the phone back down, and approximately five minutes later, a man appearing to be a security guard came to her part of the desk. After an exchange of words between the two, she pointed in Noa's direction, and the man headed right for him.

"Are you Mona?" the man asked as he reached that cluster of chairs.

"Yes, I am." he answered, somewhat timidly.

"No need to be nervous." the guard said with a wide smile, picking up on the 'girl's' wariness. "My job is just to make sure we keep things safe around here. As long as you're with me, nothing bad is going to happen to you."

"Ah..thank you, sir.."

"Now, I was told you wanted to have a look around? Would you like a little tour?"

"Oh, yes, very much, sir!" he nodded.

"Then come with me, and I can show you the highlights. I'm sure you'll learn a lot about this company in the process!" the man said with a following gesture of the hand.

Noa pretty much leaped out of the chair, and began to follow the man. The two walked past the waiting area, and further into the building.

The little tour showed Noa nothing new, only what had changed since he had last been there alive. The guard pointed out various rooms where different things were going on within, all to the purpose of developing new toys, gadgets, electronic devices, or new technologies for older games. The young Kaiba pretended to be amazed, although finding himself gradually feeling indifferent to these things rather than disdain..for the simple fact that Seto was apparently very dedicated to making fun things for children.

By now, the man was directing the little 'girl' down a particular hallway with many doors to the left and right, ending with an elevator at the other side.

"We'll go up to the next floor, and you'll get to see even more wonderful things." he man said in good spirits, clearly happy with thinking that he was making an orphan's day great.

"What sort of things?" he asked with faux curiosity.

Before the man could answer, Noa was abruptly overcome with a feeling as though he were about to past out. A sense and awakening occurred within, and his already opened eyes seemed to reopen, taking on a completely different air.

"Where am I?!" Mokuba cried out, in his normal voice.

"Huh?" the guard turned, surprised by the change of tone. He watched as the 'girl' slapped her own hands over her mouth, taking awkward steps backwards towards the wall with wide eyes.

Within, Mokuba stood in an ongoing darkness with Noa directly behind him, his hands clamped over his mouth.

_Mokuba! Don't say anything yet!_

It was no good, Mokuba was too rattled and confused to really pay attention. On the outside, he continued to press backwards until he was almost at the wall, right next to one of the numerous doors there.

"Mona? What's wrong? Are you sick?" the bewildered guard asked. The manner did seem similar to someone about to throw up, although he otherwise had no idea what was going on.

And just then, the door Mokuba was standing near swung open.

**_WHAK_**

The preteen fell forward, face-down on the carpeted floor. Despite the hair and hat in the way, the door knocked him in the back of the head pretty good, and he now laid as though unconscious.

"Augh!" the guard cried, and knelt down. "Hey, are you okay? Can you hear me?"

"Huh? What happened?" Dr. Bastanchury asked as he stepped out of the door, looking to the side to see what he had hit.

"You hit this girl here, she got infront of the door!" the guard explained.

"What?" Bastanchury closed the door, and knelt down as well upon the fallen form. "Let me see if she's injured, I'm a doctor."

He reached down towards the 'girl'.


	12. Chapter 12

**Resurfaced**

**Chapter 12**

"Level 5 monster.." Mokuba whispered to himself. "A level 5 is the strongest level."

With that thought in mind, he really wanted to see what the monster inside the small capsule would look like. His fingertips pressed on the item to open the cap, but it ended up popping out of his hands and rolled away. Mokuba watched with a particular horror as it continued to roll until it stopped under and past an especially thick cable, the width of a man's arm.

_I can get it back. _He thought. _I still have time. Seto won't notice._

Mokuba took quick, but careful steps towards the fallen egg.

"Fifteen seconds." spoke a voice from the speakers.

He dove right down to the floor once he got close enough to the large cable, on his hands and knees, and started reaching for the egg, pressing himself down on the welcomingly cold floor until his shirt and jacket were sandwiched between himself and the metal below. He stretched his arm out as far as it could go, scooting himself forward just slightly as his fingertips touched the plastic egg, rolling it into his palm. His fist gripped tightly, and he immediately scooted backwards on his elbows.

"One."

There was a sudden buzzing in the air, and Mokuba fell into a prompt panic. He withdrew his arm in a whipping motion, desperate to get away. The back of his hand brushed against the underside of the massive cable.

That's when everything seemed to halt, as if time itself had stopped. The slate room faded black, and everything else in the room slowly followed suit. The many cables and wires, the box, the screen, all of it seemed to dissolve into darkness. Mokuba simply watched in complete confusion, frozen in place.

The only thing remaining was the large cable his fist felt stuck to..but then that went away too, and was replaced with a hand that rested upon his own. This other hand glowed in the darkness, appearing to be made up of light or electricity, wisping with whatever energy it was composed of..it was difficult to stare at with such stark contrast against everything else.

Mokuba found his gaze being drawn up, following the arm of the hand, to the shoulder, to the face, and finally to the eyes. Returning the stare, Noa's glowing form stood in the blackness with a faint smile.

Nothing was said.

Then, as if he'd been dreaming, Mokuba's eyes opened. The perplexed younger Kaiba noticed he was standing in his own room..although he immediately realized that this still wasn't real, nor did he feel like he was actually awake.

"What's--"

"Mokuba!" he heard Noa's voice almost shout, sufficiently interrupting him.

"Noa?" Mokuba turned around, and nearly jumped. The teal-haired Kaiba was standing directly behind him, bearing quite the serious, yet worried expression. He also noticed that Noa's eyes had become the vivid blue they used to be instead of the gray.

"I'm glad you're awake, but we've got a big problem going on!"

"What is it? What's going on? And where am I?" he shot off the questions in understandable bewilderment. "The last thing I remember is being at the hospital.."

"Long story short, the doctor was trying to poison you." Noa started with urgency. "He wanted to make you sick to get money out of your brother, but I got us out of there after you went unconscious. When Seto found out you escaped, he announced it for the police and everyone to look for you. I got us somewhere safe in the meantime, and now I've been trying to find Seto without anyone else finding us first!"

Mokuba reeled at this intake of information, trying to mentally straighten out what he'd just heard.

"That doctor tried to do this?" he asked, placing his hands to the sides of his head.

"Yes, and we don't have much time! We're inside the KaibaCorp. tower right now, and Seto's having a board meeting or something here. We've got to get to him before someone else finds us, or we'll end up going right back into the hands of that doctor!"

"The main building, you mean? Wait—how did you get that far without anyone seeing me?"

"Uh.." Noa's expression dropped its staidness as he pressed a hand to the back of his head. "About that..you see..I managed to get a disguise set up for you.."

The sudden shift in Noa's demeanor made Mokuba a little concerned.

"..What kind of disguise?"

"..Keep in mind, the disguise itself wasn't my idea. Someone else helped me with it." the blue-eye boy raised a hand up, waving his index finger from side to side. "So, in order to make you look completely different..you've been..dressed up like a..well..a girl."

"What?" he exclaimed with obvious disapproval. "Why a girl?"

"It's all I had to work with! And you have an awful lot of hair, it's hard to hide!"

"My hair isn't hard to hide, I've fit it all under a stocking cap before!"

"Was it a really big stocking cap?" Noa raised an eyebrow.

"No, it was a normal size. In fact, I used just that and a handkerchief covering my face like a bandanna as a disguise before!"

"That's..kind of really conspicuous. Well, this disguise has been working fine so far, no one's recognized you at all."

"Aaah.." Mokuba's hand moved down to palm his own face, while the other hand limped to his side. "I can't believe I have to look like a girl again!"

Noa blinked in an expressionless fashion. "..Again? You've done this before?"

"Uh.." his hand moved away from his face. "Well..sort of..it was a game..I only did it to find my brother and keep the queen that looked just like me from getting kidnapped!"

Noa blinked several times, "..Actually, I don't want to know.." then he shook his head, snapping out of the stupor. "The important thing right now is finding Seto! It's been so long since I've been in KaibaCorp, I don't know my way around it anymore.."

"I know that building like the back of my hand!" Mokuba exclaimed, eager to change the subject. "I can find him, if I know where to look!"

"All I know is that he's having a board meeting with a lot of important people, or something like that.."

"The meeting room at the top of the tower!" he quickly concluded. "That's where the important meetings are always held, if there's a lot of people!"

"Can you find it without drawing any attention?"

"I can try, but if I need to, I can run and hopefully get to it without anyone catching me."

"That's exactly what we need to do. Seto needs to be told about what that doctor tried to do to you, so he won't send you back there. You've got a purse with two items to prove the case, so don't let lose it!"

"Got'cha." he firmly nodded. "Let's find my brother!"

* * *

"I don't think she's harmed. Just a bad thump, but no bleeding or any real damages as far as I can tell." Bastanchury said to the guard after giving the 'girl' a rubbing to the back of her head.

"That's a relief." the guard responded, getting himself back up to a stand.

"Let's get her face out of the floor." Bastanchury added as he then turned the 'girl' over onto her back, giving her a glance over. After giving his glasses a push further up onto his face, he did a double-take of the 'girl's' face. It looked so very familiar.

"Hmm..actually, let me check something else.."

The doctor gently pulled the 'girl's' glasses further down, getting them out of the way as he then carefully set a fingertip on her closed eye, pulling the lid up enough to see the iris behind. That blue-gray eye...

From there, he shut the eye and put the cobalt frames back in place, proceeding to take hold of the girl's left hand. He lifted it, pulling the sleeve of the blouse back enough to reveal a hand, save for fingers, wrapped in bandages. Seeing this, there was no longer a doubt in Bastanchury's mind over the identity of this 'girl'. The man nodded to himself, picking her up into his arms.

"..Just to be safe, I think it would be best for me to take her back to the hospital I work at. She can get a proper inspection there." he said to the guard as he stood, holding the smaller form. "Sometimes, the damages to one's head isn't so obvious from a blow like that. I certainly wouldn't want any lingering effects to afflict this poor girl."

"You're a good man, doctor."

"Thank you for saying so, but I'm not doing this for compliments." he said with a hidden grin.

Just then, Mokuba's eyes snapped open. The first thing he noticed was being in the arms of the doctor, and that definitely was the last place he wanted to be.

"Eek!" the preteen shrieked in a girlish tone.

Bastanchury almost stumbled in surprise.

"She's awake!" the guard pointed out in the face of obviousness. "Are you feeling better, Mona?"

Mokuba ignored the question as he quickly looked around the area to affirm his surroundings, and determine what part of the building he was in. Once that was confirmed, he whipped up to rip the doctor's glasses off his face. Since Bastanchury had his hands full, there was nothing he could do about it, except yell as the frames were improperly removed from his face.

"OW!"

From there, the dolled up Kaiba did a twist to roll himself out of the doctor's arms, landing to the floor on his front. Bastanchury pressed his now freed hands to his ears, where the pain had been felt, as Mokuba bounced up to a stand and made a break for the elevator, his hat flying off in the process.

"Wh—wait! Mona!" the guard started. "What are you-"

"He touched me in a weird place!!" he again shrieked, trying to mask his voice.

"What?!" the guard became baffled, enough to just stand there for a moment, looking at the doctor. "What did you do?"

"I didn't do anything! She took my glasses!" Bastanchury angrily shouted. Without the glasses, his eyes were revealed to be tiny, squinty little things appearing to be wedged deeply in his face.

This distraction gave Mokuba time enough to reach the elevator and push the call button, but that certainly did catch the guard's attention.

"Hey! Mona! What are you doing? You can't use the elevator just like that!" the guard shouted as he then chased after the 'girl'. Bastanchury followed right behind the man. The distance between the two didn't leave much time for the elevator to come down..so with spur-of-the-moment thinking, Mokuba threw the doctor's glasses at the guard, which landed just before his feet.

"Here you go!"

"Ah!" the guard narrowly missed stepping on the glasses by doing a one-footed jig..and with Bastanchury following so closely behind, he bumped into the guard, and they both tumbled to the carpeted floor in a heap.

"Oof!"

_Ding_

The elevator door slid itself open, and Mokuba hurriedly stepped inside, mashing the button for the top floor. By the time the guard and doctor got themselves back up and running, the door slipped closed and moved upwards along the shaft.

Mokuba utilized this time to lean against a wall, and heave a sigh of relief. He winced when the back of his head touched the wall, putting a hand back to feel it, only to be thwarted by his woven hair. He pulled the braid forward to get a better look at it..and then looked down at his outfit.

"..Well, at least it's not as bad as the queen's dress. I look a little more normal." he thought aloud.

_You know, I was hoping you'd be a little more discreet than that._ Noa mused in his mind.

"It's okay. I can get to that room easily before any of the other guards are informed. And then Seto can give them the word to back off!"

_If it turns out that easy, then I'll be happy._

"Don't worry about it. I know exactly what to do!" he stated confidently.

_Ding_

The elevator opened up to reveal the next hallway, a much grander one bearing another length of doors to each side, ending with a regal pair of wooden doors at the very end. Mokuba wasted no time in jogging to the other end as the elevator started a descent. The guard and doctor were probably going to try catching up with him, so he knew he needed to work fast.

Reaching the doors, he stopped to lean in close, taking off the cobalt glasses and looking through the break between the doors. He could see the next room, being a wide one that served as a more private and cozy waiting area as opposed to the ones open to the public on the ground floor. Another pair of doors within that room would open to the board room, and he knew that's where Seto had to be. The only problem the boys now faced were two bulky and tall guards standing next to those doors within.

"Crap." Mokuba whispered. "I forgot Seto always has goons around for his important meetings. I don't know how we can get through without them stopping us."

_Let me take a look._

"Alright."

Mokuba's eyes shut, reopening with Noa seeing through them. He took a peek of his own though the thin gap. The eyes shut, and opened with their rightful owner looking now.

_I've got an idea. Distract them into coming this way, then get past them and break for the door._

"Right." Mokuba nodded. He was about to put the cobalt glasses back onto his face, but then he peered down at them. He put his other hand to the door, and opened it slightly, throwing the glasses down harshly through the gap.

The two goons of course noticed this.

"Hey, who's there?" one of them called out. There was no answer.

The man frowned, walking over towards the door to the fallen glasses. The second one followed only to about the center of the room, while the first investigated.

After only seeing the spectacles there, the man moved towards the door. Just as he reached out a hand to grab the handle, the door suddenly swung wide open from a hefty push.

_WHAK_

"Errrgh!!" the man stumbled backwards, gripping his now bleeding nose.

Mokuba darted out of the door and around the guy, while he was still reeling in pain. The second man was obviously confused, but at seeing what looked like a young girl running into the room, he became even more perplexed.

"What are you doing here?!" he yelled at 'her'.

The second man got no answer as the young Kaiba careened towards the next set of double doors. The second goon dove to intercept with open arms, and Mokuba veered in the other direction, slipping past the man by mere inches.

"You!! Stop right now, or else!"

No heed was given to the warning, as he continued for the doors, poised to push them open with his reaching hands as the guard followed almost directly behind.

Inside the board room, Seto was standing at the head of a long oaken table, giving his presentation about the benefits, funding, and process of constructing the KaibaLand amusement parks to the various and many representatives sitting at the table. The entire meeting thusfar wasn't going well at all, as Kaiba's concerns for his little brother sapped him of his usual energy..to the point he seemed to be sucking the very life out of the representatives with every word spoken. Many seemed drooping and bored, with polite glances down at their wrist watches, or shuffling their feet impatiently against the carpet. Seto didn't even seem to notice the effect he was having on them as he went through the presentation.

At the moment, he was explaining a pie chart on a large screen behind himself, which he was controlling through a laptop on a short wooden podium.

"..And this percentage represents the amount of our funding that would go into the park itself. As you can see, this is where most of the money would go to, for constructing the rides, the games, and the-"

_**BAM**_

Just then, every head turned to face the source of the sound, which had been the double doors. There stood what appeared to be a young girl, heaving.

"SETO!" Mokuba shouted in his normal voice.

Kaiba's head snapped up, wide eyed. That's when the second goon caught up with the 'girl', grabbing him by the arms. Mokuba protested with a wiggling.

"I'm sorry for this interruption, Mr. Kaiba, this girl-"

"Get your hands off my brother!" Seto roared violently. Even at the distance, he saw right through the disguise..though it helped that Mokuba wasn't wearing the hat or glasses anymore.

The goon immediate let go, and without a second thought, Kaiba leaped up to close the distance between the two..which he did by running across the table, his shoes slamming against its surface and coattails flaring behind. The representatives could only watch this event unfold in disbelief.

"Mokuba!" he shouted as he ran, with renewed spirit.

"Seto!" he replied, looking happy enough to cry.

Kaiba jumped over the empty chair at the other end of the table, landing just infront of his little brother. Mokuba threw himself at Seto, and Seto caught him with open arms. The two squeezed eachother tightly, neither one being able to hold back their tears of joy as they embraced.

"I missed you so much, Seto!" Mokuba blubbered.

"I'm so glad you're safe!" Kaiba said with better control of his waterworks.

That's when the guard and Bastanchury ran into the room, followed by the first goon.

"There she is!" Bastanchury stated boisterously, walking himself forward, sufficiently interrupting the brothers' moment.

Mokuba looked back to glare at the doctor with tear-stained eyes. Kaiba looked up at well, moreso in annoyed confusion.

"What are you doing here, Bastanchury? You said you were going to wait at the hospital." Seto asked.

It didn't take long for the man with large glasses to figure out what was going on.

"So, you've found your brother..I'm glad you caught him in time!" he started. "That boy has been on a rampage here!"

"He's lying, Seto!" Mokuba exclaimed, quick to interrupt. "That doctor is a quack! He tried to poison me!"

"I did no such thing!" Bastanchury fumed. "It's as plain as day that this boy is having another episode! He's dressed himself up like a girl, tried to steal my glasses, and attacked one of the guards! He's crazy!"

"I'm not crazy, and I can prove it!" the younger brother withdrew his arms to take the purse and thrust it at Seto.

"Huh? What's this?" Kaiba asked.

"It's..it's..." he pulled the purse back and unlatched the buckle, then zipped it open to reveal his handkerchief inside. "Uh.."

_It's wrapped in the handkerchief._ Noa interjected.

"It's in here!" Mokuba pulled the bundle out, letting the purse drop to the floor as he unfolded the cloth mound, revealing the two objects inside; a small white jar, and a small bottle of medicine.

_I grabbed the medicine from the doctor before I got us out of the hospital. It's what he used on you._

"This is what he tried to poison me with!" Mokuba took the small bottle and showed it to Kaiba, whom took it up and gave it a squint to read the tiny writing. It had Bastanchury's named on it, and among other things, there was also a warning label; For adult use only. Not to be taken in conjunction with other medication.

The elder brother gripped the bottle with considerable rage. He immediately stood up, facing the doctor.

"Why the hell did you give this to him?" he asked with a glare that could cut glass.

"I..I did no such thing! I never used it on him!" Bastanchury defended.

_Give Seto the jar._

Mokuba picked the jar up next, looking it over, "This is.."

_It's a urine sample._

He almost dropped it on the spot, but managed to just set it back down on the handkerchief, and then hold it up with the cloth as to avoid touching it. "Seto.."

Kaiba glanced back down at his little brother, whom held the jar out to him now.

"This..uh..don't make me tell you what it is, but it proves the medicine was in my system. Don't touch it with your hands."

He reached down to take the jar, picking it up by the cloth, and then motioned one of the goons over. The second goon responded to the motion.

"Yes, sir?"

"Take these and give them to the authorities. I want them analyzed. And take Bastanchury with you." Kaiba said as he handed the items over.

"What?! You can't do that!" the doctor protested.

"This is malpractice, doctor." Kaiba said, putting much spite in his words. "I trusted his wellbeing to you, and you failed. Don't expect any mercy from me."

The goon and the guard grabbed the man by both his arms, and proceeded to pull him out of the room.

"Wait! This is a mistake! The boy is crazy, he's doing this for no reason! I've done nothing wrong, you can't prove it! Hey! HEY!"

Bastanchury's voice faded as the men took him out of the room, down the hallway, and to the elevator. Mokuba threw another big hug onto his brother, and Seto responded with the same.

"I can explain everything, Seto. I can tell you what's really been going on." the little brother said with a nod. "But first..maybe you should finish your meeting."

Kaiba turned to face the table, as though he'd completely forgotten about everyone sitting there..all of which whom were staring dumbfounded. Then he looked back down at Mokuba.

"Mokuba, would you like to help me finish the presentation? We've done this one together before, I think you remember how it goes."

"Sure thing, Nii-sama." he responded with a grand smile.

The two brothers walked back to the other side of the room at the idle podium. Kaiba cleared his throat, picking up where he left off while Mokuba manned the laptop to his brother's words.

"..And this percentage represents the amount of our funding that would go into the park itself. As you can see, this is where most of the money would go to, for constructing the rides, the games, and the many attractions that will ensure each visitor will have a good time."

He said this with such animation and charisma, the representatives were amazed by the change. One by one, they each leaned in on the table, eager to hear more.


	13. Chapter 13

**Resurfaced**

**Chapter 13**

The two brothers were now sitting in their limo as it drove though the cooling streets of Domino, with the sun setting over the horizon. Kaiba has his arms crossed while Mokuba idly kicked his legs, the lights of the passing streetlamps flying across their faces. He had since removed the ribbon from his hair, allowing it to unravel and spring back into its usual black mass over his head, but he still wore the outfit since there were no spare clothes handy.

"Seto, I think that was the best presentation you've ever done." Mokuba commented as he looked ahead. "They were hanging on your every word!"

"I couldn't have done it without you, Mokuba." he stated simply. "But why didn't you try to call me or anything? Why did you come to the board room dressed up like that?"

"Well..if I did call you, you might've sent me to the hospital before I could show you those..items. I needed to get to you in person."

"Seems like you went though a lot of trouble for that..if I'd known what that doctor was doing, I wouldn't have let anyone take you back there."

"Yeah..but it's all over now, so it's okay."

"So.." Kaiba turned his head to look down at his brother. "..you said you were going to explain what was really going on."

"Yeah." Mokuba returned the gaze. "I couldn't tell you before because..well, I didn't know the whole reason myself. But now I can, because he got all his memories back."

The elder brother raised an eyebrow. "Who's 'he'?"

"He's..he's someone we met before, and we thought we'd never see him again. But he came back.."

"Huh?"

"Ah..maybe it'd be better for you to talk to him yourself. He can probably explain it better than I can."

"Who are you talking about? And what does 'he' have to do with anything?"

Mokuba's eyes shut, and then reopened with a stern expression, changing his demeanor in such a manner that Kaiba noticed a difference right away.

"Hello, Seto."

The young adult blinked. It looked like Mokuba, it sounded like Mokuba, and yet...

He continued, "I'm sure I'm one of the last people you wanted to be reacquainted with, but I had no control over the circumstances. Your little brother unintentionally saved my life, because I have no idea what would have happened to me if he didn't interfere with that purge you did.."

Kaiba's eyes widened at that. "What are you saying..? Who are you?"

"I'm Kaiba Noa, Seto." he stated plainly.

"What?!" the elder brother looked ready to fly off the handle, mostly in disbelief.

"I'm not too certain on the details myself, but I'm guessing that box you uncovered held my consciousness and memories in it. When Mokuba got in the way at the moment the purge took place, it all was apparently transferred into his body. Everything was scrambled at the time, so I didn't wholly have myself..all together, I suppose. My mind gradually resurfaced through Mokuba, and he kept me protected all the while, even though he didn't really know what had happened."

"That's..that can't be possible. It's impossible!" Kaiba fumbled with his words, very obviously stupefied with this information. "That entire base with the virtual world was destroyed!"

"I know it was, but it seems like a back-up system was made and ejected from the base out of harm's way. That's the only thing I can figure..it must've been something my father installed without telling me, and he apparently forgot about it himself. I otherwise have no idea what really happened that I ended up inside a box in the ocean."

Seto gave a blank stare..then that stare turned to an acidic glare. Although he couldn't truly believe Noa had returned though the body of his little brother, he had nothing to prove otherwise, and it did actually feel like he was talking to that kid.

"Then you.. you were the one that made Mokuba come to my room that night.."

Mokuba's eyes fell to the cushioned seat of the limo, the expression becoming a pained one.

"Yes. I tried to hurt you though him. Not unlike what happened in the virtual world..and I don't have an excuse for it. I know that was wrong, selfish, and careless of me. I badly regret it. This whole production with the hospital might've been avoided if I hadn't done that..but I can't erase what I did. I can only apologize for it..so I'm very, very sorry."

Kaiba's glare didn't let up as he now spoke coldly, "Do you expect me to forgive you, Noa? After what you put us through in the virtual world? After trying to do what you did to me, and putting my brother in danger like that? Do you think I would _ever _forgive you?"

Noa had nothing to say to that, apparently at a loss of words..but then Mokuba blinked, and his demeanor once again changed. Kaiba immediately recognized that he was talking to his brother again.

"Seto, don't be like that." he said with a determined manner. "You're only thinking about the bad things he did. What about the good things? Everything he did to us in the virtual world, he did because of Gozaburo..and when he tried to hurt you while you were asleep, he didn't have all his memories back at the time. I'm not saying it was okay for him to do those things..I definitely wasn't happy about it either! But I'm willing to forgive him for it. He's promised me that he'll never try to harm you again."

"Mokuba..can you really be so trusting?" Kaiba spoke moreso in concern now. "He could tell you that, but how do we really know he'll keep his word? He's tried to turn us against eachother before, I know you remember that."

"I know, but I'm not going to dwell on it... I believe him. He's the one that got me away from that doctor after he gave me that medicine. He got me out of there, he got those items, he got me in this disguise, and he got me all the way to the KaibaCorp tower by himself. Noa did everything he could to make sure I stayed safe, because he wanted to make things right again. I think he at least deserves a second chance for that, Seto."

Kaiba stared for a few moments more before his eyes went lax, huffing out a sigh though his nose.

"I'll..talk to Noa now."

Mokuba blinked, and his expression was suddenly a melancholy peer. The elder brother felt weirded out with the notion of there being two different people in the place of one.

"Hem.." he cleared his throat, treading on his words carefully. "If this is really the case..that you're Noa, and you're sharing my brother's body...if this is really, truly the case...then..you have to swear you'll never do anything to put Mokuba in danger. You'll never do something he wouldn't do, something he doesn't want you to do, or harm anyone, ever. If you try to pull any tricks, even once, I'll do everything I can to get rid of you for good. So, you have to swear on your very life that you'll cooperate with us, because it _will_ mean your life if you don't. Is that clear?"

"I understand perfectly." he nodded. "I'm not in a position to do otherwise, and I know it means my life. I wouldn't be alive now if it weren't for what Mokuba did, as I mentioned before."

"Good. If you follow through with this promise, then maybe I'll get around to forgiving you. But in the meantime, remember each word I said. This is going to be the only chance I'll give you."

"I..thank you, Seto." Noa's wariness eased slightly. "For granting me this chance, I'll make sure I won't disappoint you or Mokuba."

"You'd better not."

And then Mokuba blinked back into place.

"Seto, since Noa is our step-brother, can we all be like a family?" he asked eagerly. "I think it'd be neat to have a little brother of my own."

_Little?! _Noa yelled in his head, falling out of the cautious mood quickly. _I'm older than you!_

Mokuba pressed his hands over his ears as if to protect them, before Seto could respond to his question. "You don't look any older!"

_I look plenty older! I'm taller!_

"Taller doesn't mean anything, there's plenty of older people that are shorter than younger people!"

_But I'm way older than you, I'm as old as Seto is! I just don't look older because of being in that virtual world!_

"What's so bad about being a little brother? I'm a little brother, and I'm okay with it!"

_I don't deserve it! Just because I look young doesn't mean I should be treated that way! I should be __**your**__ older brother!_

"I'm not gonna be the little brother to two brothers!"

Kaiba could only watch vapidly as Mokuba argued at himself.

Outside, the city lights came to their full dazzle as the sun completed its journey past the horizon, filling the sky with darkness and stars.

* * *

Mrs. Mutou returned to the living from the shop, having the day's mail in her hands. It had been a week since she'd helped the little Kaiba brother out, and she became surprised to notice one of the letters was from KaibaCorp.

"Oh?" she wondered aloud as she turned the envelope over to anchor a finger inside, using it as a letter opener.

Yugi walked into the room from the shop as well, wearing his school uniform. "Anything for me, mom?"

"No, but we got a letter from Kaiba Corporation. It's addressed to me." she answered, tearing the paper open and pulling a card out from inside. "Oh, wait, it's a card, not a letter. A 'Thank you' card!"

"Really? Does it say who it's from?" Yugi asked, trying to get a look for himself over his mother's arm.

"Let me see.." she opened the card, revealing a small flap with a folded piece of paper inside.

On the flap itself, a note was written; 'Dear Mrs. Mutou, I wanted to again thank you for your assistance. Because of your invaluable help, I was able to safely find Seto and get the issues straighten out. I couldn't have done it without you. I've enclosed a check for you to reimburse the expenses you made on my behalf. Sincerely, Kaiba family.'

"Kaiba family." she said.

"Kaiba family? From Mokuba and Kaiba, then?"

"I suppose. It's a gift." she plucked the check from the flap, and unfolded it. There was a particular silence as she read the amount written.

Mrs. Mutou dropped backwards, thumping to a flat-out land on her back, the check flitting to follow her to the floor.

"Mom!" Yugi cried out as he dropped to his knees, nudging her by the shoulders. "Are you okay?!"

That's when Yugi's grandfather walked in from the hall as well, taking quick notice of the situation, and rushing to her aid as well.

"What's wrong? What happened?" he was quick to ask.

"She fainted! She--" Yugi then blinked, picking up the fallen check and opening it wide to see what about it had caused such a reaction. He immediately gaped at the number.

"Un..unbelievable!"

* * *

A month had passed.

The little mystery of the orphan known as Mona had been resolved, as word hadn't gotten all around of who the girl really was, which was an issue Kaiba was quick to clear up.

The next issue was over Dr. Bastanchury, whom had been detained while the evidence was being analyzed. Though a number of interviews, interrogations, and testimonials, it was brought to light that Dr. Hanasaki never had suggested that Bastanchury should've overviewed Mokuba's stay at the hospital. This information, along with the rather incriminating evidence the younger Kaiba had provided, coaxed the doctor into confessing his doings with hopes it would lighten the inevitable punishment. Unfortunately for him, Kaiba made every effort to see to it that he would be hit as hard as possible for his malpractice.

All the while, Noa had been fitting himself into a niche in the daily life of the Kaiba family, partly through endearing tensions that would occur between him and Mokuba. The main downside of sharing a body meant they couldn't get away from eachother if either of them wanted to be alone, and Noa tended to playfully get on Mokuba's nerves from time to time. This resulted in Kaiba needing to resolve their disputes, and while he had always made it a goal to be both a good big brother and father to Mokuba, it wasn't until Noa became part of the family that he really started to feel like a parent.

But despite these things, Noa made a healthy addition of himself. He gave advice when he could, and acted as a companion for Mokuba when Seto was too busy with his work to spend time with his little brother..which happened frequently, since Kaiba still had a lot to do to make up for lost time. They played games, talked often, and occasionally worked on homework together with Noa acting as a tutor. Mokuba was quite glad to have Noa around, and though his brother's happiness, Kaiba found himself to be gradually more accepting of the pure-blooded son of Gozaburo.

That night, several hours after Kaiba went to bed, the door to his bedroom slowly and carefully opened. Mokuba stepped into the room quietly, making his way to the elder brother's thickly cushioned bed.

"Seto?" he whispered.

There was no reply, so he tip-toed to the side edge Kaiba was resting closest to. From there, he reached out with a hand to give his Nii-sama a few nudges on the arm.

"Seto, wake up." he again whispered.

Kaiba groggily struggled to open his eyes, soon surprised to be awoken by his brother. He turned to press his elbows into the sheets, lifting his upper half enough to squint at the preteen.

"..Mokuba? What's-"

"Shh." the younger brother withdrew his hand to press a finger to his lips. "Noa's asleep, I don't wanna wake him up."

"..What's wrong?" Kaiba whispered too, now.

"Nothing's wrong." he said, lowering his hand to rest on the edge of the mattress. "I was just wondering something."

"..Wondering something at this time of night?"

"I was thinking..you know how you told me that when you get all caught up with your work, we would do anything I wanted to?"

"Oh.." Kaiba blinked a few times, brushing a hand through his short brown hair. "Yeah, I remember that. What about it?"

"You said the other day that you got all caught up with everything, so we can do something, can't we?"

"...Mokuba, I'm not going to take you anywhere in the middle of the night."

"No, no.. I don't want to go anywhere right _now_. I just have an idea for what we can do..but I want it to be a surprise for Noa."

"..Noa? You want to do something for him?"

Mokuba nodded excitedly, "Yeah. I had an awesome idea! He was telling me about one of the things he really liked to do when he was little..I thought maybe we could do that."

"Do what?"

The boy stood on the tips of his toes to reach his big brother's ear, whispering with a hand guarding his mouth. Seto blinked blankly before it set it..and then nodded as Mokuba pulled back.

"Yeah..I think we can do that. I'll need time to get that set up, though. Can you give me a week?"

"Sure!" he nodded with more even more pep, then snuck a quick hug around Kaiba's neck. "You're the best!"

The elder brother wasn't in a proper position to return the gesture, so he just rubbed a hand on top of the poofy mass of hair that dominated his little brother's cranium.

"Yeah. I'll take care of it. Go ahead and go back to bed."

"Thanks, Seto! Goodnight!" he was quick to let go and sneak back out of the room, closing the door as he went.

Kaiba reached for a small pencil and pad of paper he kept handy on his nightstand, jotted down a quick note to himself, and then put the pencil back in place. He flopped to his other side, and before long, was drifting back into a deep sleep.

Outside, a chirping bird gave silence to the medley of crickets.


End file.
